Mr. Martin Fraser:

Of course. My remarks will be along the lines of that letter. We are talking about the secondment of the Chief Medical Officer, CMO. I had a number of confidential conversations with the CMO about his future plans. This was in the context of our working relationship during the pandemic. I naturally have such confidential conversations with colleagues about their personal situations from time to time and, of course, I respect confidentiality in such circumstances. Towards the end of February, the CMO indicated to me that he was thinking of stepping down from his current role and was considering a possible role in the university sector that could make a continuing contribution to improving public health capacity in Ireland. He proposed a secondment from the Civil Service to an academic post in a university that would enable him to use his knowledge and experience to help strengthen public health leadership in Ireland and to deepen relationships between the university sector, State agencies and international organisations in the field of public health. As is common practice in the university sector, he envisaged that some research funding would be made available to support this work. I was supportive of this proposal as the Covid-19 pandemic clearly illustrated the need for strengthened public health capacity not just here in Ireland, but globally, and I believed that Dr. Holohan could make a significant contribution in that regard.

I contacted the Secretary General of the Department of Health, who advised me that he was dealing with the matter. I had no further involvement as the detailed arrangements were a matter for the Department of Health. The Department of the Taoiseach had no other involvement nor did I discuss the proposal with anyone except the Chief Medical Officer and the Secretary General of the Department of Health until there were media reports about the matter towards the end of March.