Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will answer the question and then come straight to that, if I may. The Deputy asked whether procedures are now in place on the back of the proposed secondment and the issues with it. The answer is “No” because that is exactly what we have written to the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to come back to us with because that is its core competence.

To the €2 million in research funding, it is absolutely the case, and perhaps this is what the Deputy is alluding to, that the letter of intent referenced that Dr. Holohan would lead on the research. I fully agree with that. It is worth stating that the €2 million had not been committed to. It could not be committed to because, for example, I had not seen it at that point. I would need to agree with it and I have no doubt I would need to put it through the Estimates process.

Obviously that did not happen. It was signalled but not actually committed to.