Report on Tony Holohan’s cancelled TCD secondment given to Stephen Donnelly in July

A report on the abandoned plan for the former chief medical officer Tony Holohan to move on secondment to Trinity College Dublin has been completed and was received by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly last month.

The report into the controversial secondment, which was commenced in April after the appointment of Dr Holohan to a post in TCD was abandoned, was due to be finalised in June. Former head of the Institute of Directors Maura Quinn, who was appointed to carry out the review, submitted her report on June 14th. She was contacted by Mr Donnelly on July 1st and asked to consider other matters. She submitted a final report on July 27th, she said.

A report in the Business Post on Sunday quotes a spokesman for the Department of Health confirming that the review is ongoing.

However, Ms Quinn has told The Irish Times this is “not true”.

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‘No delay’

“My report was finalised and submitted to the Minister on July 27th,” she said. “There has been no delay by me on this at all.”

The Department of Health has confirmed it received the report. A spokeswoman said: “The Minister received Ms Quinn’s report on July 27th. He has been working to ensure the necessary procedures are followed before publication. That process is ongoing.”

A spokeswoman for Mr Donnelly said the Business Post was told that the “process” was continuing. The paper was not told that the review had been completed and submitted to the Minister.

The proposed appointment of Dr Holohan, who led Ireland’s public health response during the pandemic and became a household name, to a new professorship in TCD grew into a political controversy earlier this year.

Watt proposal

The move was championed by the secretary-general of the Department of Health, Robert Watt, who proposed that the department should continue to pay Dr Holohan’s salary. The department also committed to a €2 million-a-year grant for public health research in TCD for the next 10 years of Dr Holohan’s secondment.

There was significant unease throughout Government when the proposal came to light, as there had been no political or ministerial approval for the move.

In an initial report on the issue by Mr Watt, he stood over his role and defended his decision not to inform Mr Donnelly that it was a secondment, claiming there was “nothing unusual” about the arrangement.

Mr Watt also denied that Taoiseach Micheál Martin and other members of the Government were “kept in the dark”, saying that the secretary-general of government, Martin Fraser, was aware of the proposed move in late February and early March.

Following the initial report by Mr Watt, a more detailed, independent report was sought from Ms Quinn in order to “to examine learnings and recommendations that could inform future such initiatives”, according to the Department of Health.

Mr Donnelly has said he is committed to publishing the report. The Department of Health declined to say when the report might be published.