Author of report into botched secondment of Tony Holohan to Trinity turns down committee invite

The author of a report into the controversial botched secondment of former chief medical officer Tony Holohan to Trinity College will not appear before a committee holding hearings on the process.

Maura Quinn, the former chief executive of the Institute of Directors in Ireland, has turned down an invitation from the Oireachtas finance committee to appear before it and discuss her report.

In a letter sent earlier this month, Ms Quinn told committee chair John McGuinness that she had “nothing further to add on the matter, other than that which is contained in the published report”.

She said her report and its recommendations had been accepted by the Government and she wanted to respectfully decline the invitation as “I would be unable to make any further comment on my report”.

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The committee has also invited Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly, who is expected to attend once a date has been identified.

Highly charged session

Sources said it was highly unlikely the committee would seek to compel Ms Quinn, who was not paid for her work compiling the report. The finance committee had previously sought to compel Robert Watt, the top civil servant in the Department of Finance and a central player in the controversy.

Mr Watt ultimately appeared voluntarily – once compellability had been secured – in a highly charged session that saw him reject the conclusions of the report, with Mr McGuinness accusing him of being “arrogantly dismissive”.

The report found that Dr Holohan should not have been as involved as he was in aspects of the arrangement underpinning his proposed move. Ms Quinn found that the proposed funding mechanism for the secondment did not meet “accepted norms of scrutiny, transparency and accountability”.

The report also detailed divergences and criticisms between Mr Watt and Deirdre Gillane, Micheál Martin’s chief of staff, who said a contention by the civil servant that she had been broadly informed of the move, and therefore that the political system had been kept up to speed, was “wholly without foundation”.