Sir, – The decision to seek to create a research post in a third-level institute, in order to learn from the experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic, both here and abroad, made eminent sense (News, April 19th). This research could have developed strategies to ensure that we are all better positioned to deal with the next pandemic when it strikes. This post should have been made subject to open competition and Dr Holohan would have been an excellent candidate. Instead, an inept and clumsy attempt was made to shoehorn this appointment by way of an open-ended secondment for which there was no precedent. The figure for an annual budget of €2 million for this post appears to have been plucked from the sky.
It is difficult to know what conclusions ought to be drawn from the fact that, to date, no attempt has been made to pursue the creation of this third-level posting. – Yours, etc,
PAUL WALSH,
Skerries,
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Co Dublin.
