Donnelly backs Tánaiste's chief of staff in dispute with Robert Watt on Holohan secondment

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly: 'Having spent a lot of time on this, I do believe that everyone was acting in good faith.' Picture: Gareth Chaney /Collins 

The minister for health has said he backs the Tánaiste’s chief of staff in a row regarding the former chief medical officer (CMO), but said no action needs to be taken against his own secretary-general.

Stephen Donnelly said the differing versions of events given in a newly-published report into the abandoned €2m secondment of former CMO Tony Holohan to Trinity College last year could be due to a “misunderstanding of the testimony given” by his own head of department Robert Watt.