Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Let us read what its minutes say. The minutes of the HRB state that it "was not involved in any discussion around this post" and the report states: "the HRB has rigorous and transparent policies and processes in place... [for] both application for, and assessment of, research awards."

That sounds to me like they knew nothing about it and they were not particularly happy at the fact that they were being seen to commit €2 million in circumstances where they had not been consulted.