An Oireachtas committee is planning further scrutiny of the botched secondment of former chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan after a fractious hearing with the top civil servant in the Department of Health.
The department’s secretary general, Robert Watt, sought to draw a line under the controversy at Wednesday’s meeting but committee members said it left things more “muddled” than beforehand.
Finance committee chair, John McGuinness, told The Irish Times that it would consider next steps after the session on Wednesday when Mr Watt said he rejected most of the findings of an independent report on the process.
“We need to take a step further,” Mr McGuinness said, adding the committee would compare Mr Watt’s evidence with that supplied by others about the secondment plan and would consider holding more sessions and producing its own report.
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“If anything, we’re more muddled about things than we were beforehand, with the only document of clarity being the independent report.”
The meeting saw tense exchanges between Mr Watt and members, with Mr McGuinness accusing Mr Watt of being “arrogantly dismissive of the report”. Mr Watt said it was “not fair to suggest that I’m not here in good faith”.
[ Robert Watt rejects ‘most’ of Holohan report findings and reveals laptop ‘hack’Opens in new window ]
[ Robert Watt undergoes committee grilling but what did we learn?Opens in new window ]
Mr Watt also said he accepted the “bona fides” of other senior figures, such as the Tánaiste’s chief of staff, Deirdre Gillane, who had said information given by Mr Watt about when she knew about the secondment was “inaccurate”.
During the hearing, Mr Watt defended the process leading to the secondment and a controversial plan to link €2 million in annual research funding to the planned post for Dr Holohan. He said an effort to inform Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, of the plan fell foul of a “hack” of his laptop.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Communications said the National Cyber Security Centre occasionally technically examines devices of persons as a precaution. “Minister Donnelly’s device was examined at the time in question and no signs of compromise were found”.
A spokesman for Mr Donnelly said he and his officials were advised not to use their devices for a period at the time “particularly for email – due to concerns about a cyber security risk”.
