Committee to grill senior civil servants over aborted Holohan move to TCD

Oireachtas finance committee agreed unanimously to seek all documents, minutes, and emails relating to the process

The Oireachtas finance committee members are 'united in seeking answers' regarding the process that would have seen Tony Holohan stand down as chief medical officer and become a professor of public health at Ireland’s oldest university. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

The Oireachtas finance committee is to haul in three top civil servants to grill them on the aborted secondment of Tony Holohan to Trinity College Dublin (TCD).

Robert Watt, secretary general at the Department of Health, who is at the heart of the controversy; Martin Fraser, secretary general to the Government, and David Maloney, secretary general at the Department of Public Expenditure are to be called before the committee on April 27.

The committee has also left open the door to calling in Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, and Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath to defend themselves.

The Irish Examiner has been told that at a private meeting of the cross-party committee on Tuesday, it agreed unanimously to seek all documents, minutes, and emails relating to the process which would have seen Dr Holohan stand down as chief medical officer (CMO) and become a professor of public health at Ireland’s oldest university.

It is specifically seeking an early copy of the report Mr Watt furnished to the Taoiseach and health minister this week.

The committee has set a deadline of April 21 for all documents to be handed over.

 According to committee chair John McGuinness, the members were united in seeking answers “on a matter of public concern”.

Seeking answers 

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Mr McGuinness confirmed the decision of the committee and stressed how united the committee is in seeking answers. 

“This is a serious matter and we are seeking and will not relent until we get all the answers as to how this controversy was allowed to happen,” he said.

At the meeting, it was agreed to write to the top officials in the three departments seeking clarity as to how this process originated and why the secondment issue was not highlighted when Dr Holohan announced his decision to stand down on March 26.

Last Saturday, Dr Holohan, after five days of controversy over his proposed move to Trinity, relented and decided not to take up the post and said he will retire from his position as CMO in July.

However, he did say he looks forward to sharing his expertise outside of the public sector.

Mr Watt’s report says that the final financial details of the secondment to TCD were not fully worked out. It states that Dr Holohan's salary was going to be covered by research funding from a Department of Health quango, to be applied for by Trinity.