Minister stays silent on Holohan inquiry report

THE results of an inquiry into former chief medical officer Tony Holohan’s doomed €20m-plus Trinity College secondment are due to be published in the coming weeks, the Department of Health has confirmed.

However, the department has declined to reveal if the findings of the investigation were altered after copies were circulated to Dr Holohan and Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt.

It is understood there have been considerable tensions over the report, which was prepared by former Institute of Directors boss Maura Quinn. A version of the report was delivered in June. A final version was given to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly in July.

When asked if ‘the report had been revised in any way since it was circulated to those named in the report’, a spokesman for Minister Donnelly would only say: ‘The minister expects to be in a position to publish the report in the coming weeks. In accordance with legal advice, any individuals named in the report are entitled to due process and fair procedures.’

Under the deal brokered by Dr Holohan and Mr Watt, the thenCMO – who was the public face of the Government’s Covid-19 public health response – would have retained his €187,000 annual salary. In addition, €2m a year would be set aside for 10 years so the 55-year-old could do public health research at Trinity College.

Details of the deal first emerged in March in a press release announcing he was stepping down from his CMO role.

Controversy arose about whether a secondment could last for 10 years and how Dr Holohan’s €20m research budget would be funded.

After Taoiseach Micheál Martin ‘put a pause’ on the proposed move, Dr Holohan announced in April that he would not be taking up the secondment and he would be retiring from his public service role three months later.

Since then, the former CMO has set up his own company and was recently appointed by Kildarebased clinical lab firm Enfer Medical as the chair of its medical advisory board.

Dr Holohan also joined the board of the Irish Hospice Foundation last month.