Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When top-level civil servants are being seconded there will have to be new protocols in place for all of that. It is not just a middle-ranking civil servant. The CMO is a top-level civil servant and out of courtesy, the Government should have been notified. We are not out of the pandemic. Hopefully we are in its twilight but we are certainly not out of it.

The letter Mr. Watt sent to TCD on 16 March includes the word "commit" in terms of the funding of €2 million per year. If the scenario presented that Government approval for the €2 million was not forthcoming, given that Mr. Watt had committed it in a letter, does he accept that he was leaving the Department of Health exposed perhaps to litigation from Trinity? Clearly TCD was going ahead with this appointment. It was creating this role. Mr. Watt was looking for retrospective funding to be sanctioned. If that were not sanctioned, does Mr. Watt not think he was leaving the Department of Health exposed?