Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome both of the witnesses. It was interesting that Mr. Watt used the phrase "this innovative approach". We are not talking about the rights or wrongs of investment in research. We are talking about the handling of this particular proposal and I think that it is a bit of a misnomer to refer to it as an "innovative approach". It was a serious mishandling of a proposal.

I happen to be somebody who has been very supportive of the whole idea of enhancing public health and I have been very conscious of it for a long time. It was very clear during the early days of the pandemic just how weak that function was within the health service. As far as I know, it is the only discipline within health that does not have an academic chair. It would have been a very good idea to have an underpinning in one of the universities.

Today, we are here to talk about how Mr. Watt, as Secretary General of the Department, handled this matter. I find his opening statement curiously vague because the actions that he took were very specific and what he said in his letter to Trinity was very specific. His opening statement misrepresents the situation. I do not think his opening statement is accurate but I want him to clarify the following. He said: "I was aware that the Government had recently endorsed particular secondment arrangements ... for senior civil servants". What are those arrangements?