Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, the Secretary General of the Department of Health, Mr. Robert Watt, appeared before the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach over the botched attempt to arrange an open-ended secondment of Dr. Tony Holohan, up until his retirement, with €20 million of public money assigned to that secondment. The external review commissioned by the Minister for Health was very critical of Mr. Watt but also critical of Dr. Holohan. I note the Government has accepted all the findings of that review. It was stated in the review that Mr. Watt bypassed all the acceptable protocols for research funding in respect of the Chief Medical Officer, CMO. It stated he should not have been involved exclusively and personally in negotiations with university partners regarding this secondment.

A lot of time and money was spent on this review. The Tánaiste stated that lessons would be learned. The Secretary General rejects the main findings of the report-----

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