Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I need to stop you there because the facts do not stack up. This is the letter of intent that you signed. It was not about increasing funding. The letter states:

To make an annual ring-fenced allocation of €2M for the duration of the secondment to be administered through the Health Research Board, a body under the aegis of the Department of Health, to support the development and activities of an inter-institutional collaboration led by Dr. Holohan from his position in Trinity College Dublin.

It was a commitment to make an annual ring-fenced allocation of €2 million for the duration of his secondment, which was ten years. That is €20 million. It was a commitment through the HRB, which had no knowledge of and did not authorise this. I will put the question to you again. Do you have the authority to actually make a commitment of €20 million of funding over a ten-year period to institutions through the HRB?