Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Let us be very clear that the report makes it clear that the research funding was linked atypically to one named individual. That is the point it is making. If the Government is providing research funding, give it to the board and let it decide how to fund it. That is not what happened here. This is funding that was allocated on the basis that the wages, which were the same as what he was entitled to previously, were going to be paid out of this to Dr. Holohan. This is what the report found.

I know time is moving on. The Minister was kept in the dark about the further detail on this. Robert Watt explained that the Minister knew about the generalities of the secondment and the research funding but he was kept in the dark about the letter. Robert Watt said the Minister's computer was hacked for five days when he was in America and the Department could not send an email. I struggle to get my head around that. Maybe the Minister will enlighten us all about what happened that a computer was hacked. Emails do not go to just one computer. They go to a server in the cloud. What happened? How did the Minister's computer or some device being hacked for five days prevent an email from being sent?