Dr. Tony Holohan:

On the private sector piece, as I understand it this is no more than a statement of what my current arrangements are both in my current post and what the arrangements are that pertained to positions in the academic sector. So, although I have never availed of it, I think that the current position in respect of my role as a civil servant is that I am not debarred from being involved in things outside of my role that do not conflict with my role. I do not have any such arrangement but I know that there are plenty of civil servants who have arrangements, businesses, write books and things of that nature and earn moneys from those where they do not conflict with their role. I think that is the formal position for anybody who works in the Civil Service.

In respect of Trinity, and I think this is the purpose for its statement, and for the avoidance of doubt, there are arrangements across the academic sector that pertain to all academic appointments, as I understand them. Trinity College has, in the public domain, published detailed guidances for the rules and requirements of individuals to comply with. So I see that as no more than a statement in a contractual situation of exactly analogous arrangements both in the Civil Service and Trinity and that I would have to comply with those. It was not a statement of commitment to some specific or certain opportunity that I had any particular personal intentions around.