Mary Horgan reappointed as interim chief medical officer after 'unsuccessful' recruitment drive

Professor Mary Horgan was first appointed to the role in June 2024 on an interim basis following the departure of Professor Breda Smyth. She served as CMO from November 2022 to May 2024 following the departure of Dr Tony Holohan. File picture

Mary Horgan has been reappointed as interim chief medical officer (CMO) after “subsequent unsuccessful attempts” to fill the position on a permanent basis.

It means she will hold the position on a temporary basis for a total of four years.

Ms Horgan was first appointed to the role in June 2024 on an interim basis following the departure of Professor Breda Smyth. She served as CMO from November 2022 to May 2024 following the departure of Dr Tony Holohan.

On Tuesday, health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill received approval to reappoint Ms Horgan as interim CMO for another 24 months. This will bring the proposed total length of the secondment to four years.

There have been subsequent unsuccessful attempts to fill the position through open competition, ministers were told.

Ms Horgan is agreeable to extending her secondment further, with the Department of Health expected to run an open competition within 18 months to begin the process of recruiting a substantive CMO at the sanctioned pay scale of clinical consultant.

The pay scale for a clinical consultant under the 2023 Sláintecare contract is €238,221 to €286,151.

When the CMO role was advertised in 2024, the salary ranged between €217,325 and €261,051, the same as the Sláintecare salary scale at the time.

Ms Horgan is professor of infectious diseases at University College Dublin and the Mater Misericordiae Hospital. 

She has held the positions of president of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and president of the Infectious Diseases Society of Ireland.

She also served on the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet), led the expert advisory group on rapid testing, chaired Ireland’s first National Research Ethics Committee, and led the design of a new emerging health threats agency.

• Louise Burne is Political Correspondent.