Donnelly orders external review of Tony Holohan secondment process to Trinity

The Department of Health has accepted that the arrangements around a controversial secondment "should have been communicated earlier"

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly

A role outside of the Department of Health was first discussed between the Department's secretary-general Robert Watt and Dr Tony Holohan as far back as last August.

A report compiled on the controversial secondment, which Dr Holohan has now decided to not take up, also claims that it was "never envisaged" that the salary would be "paid directly on the Vote of the Department of Health".