Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 4 May 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Proposed Appointment of Chief Medical Officer to a Role at a Higher Education Institution: Discussion

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

I thought Mr. Watt would have been aware of that. He talked very vaguely about things and said that the letter to Trinity was from the Department. It was from Mr. Watt himself. This is all about how Mr. Watt handled this matter. He talked about that letter setting out the main draft details. They are not really draft details. They are very specific in the letter to Trinity. He said that "Dr. Holohan's post was something that needed to be worked out" but that is not the impression that Mr. Watt gave in the letter to the Provost of Trinity. Mr. Watt very specifically said: "Under the proposed agreement the Department of Health commits to...". So Mr. Watt was committing the Department of Health to funding not only for the first year, a figure of €2 million, but he was committing to multi-annual funding over a period of about ten years and that comes to a figure of about €20 million, which is a very substantial amount of money. In addition, there is the question of Dr. Holohan's salary over that period and, conservatively, that is probably in the region of €3 million. So Mr. Watt was making a commitment of €23 million of taxpayers' money without the authority to do so. This was not a vague thing where one was going to work out the details. Mr. Watt committed in his letter to Trinity and I believe that he went beyond his authority and power to do that. It is very hard to understand the mentality of somebody who would do that. A sum of €23 million is a huge amount of money so I would expect that a Secretary General in a Department would first get informal approval and certainly make the Minister aware of what he proposed to do. Mr. Watt already committed taxpayers' money in that letter and I do not think that is an acceptable action for a Secretary General to take.

Where did Mr. Watt get the figure of €2 million a year?

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.