Results 68,501-68,520 of 74,100 for speaker:Bernard Durkan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I did not quite get that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: You did not.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: Why did you not expect the response? It is a very important position for a very important individual who had done this State a great deal of service. In those circumstances, would not have been useful to walk very carefully and make sure that every possible “t” was crossed and “i” was dotted?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: A negative response.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: When did you become aware of the level of negativity associated with it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: There surely must have been some movement in the tall grass, for want of a better description, before it became a public issue in a negative fashion. There must have been some indication to somebody involved that this would cause a problem, there were going to be questions asked about it and they were not going to be helpful. In view of the facts that Tony Holohan had given such a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: You mentioned earlier that this happened all the time in public service, in the Government Departments and so on. Does it still happen?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: Is that a good thing?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: Now hold on a second. I am trying to get my head around this now. I know that the intricacies or the workings of Departments are vague and above the reach of the ordinary individual. However, if you learn nothing from it from in terms of procedures to be followed in the future, if you say, on the one hand, that this still continues-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: Given, again, the importance of the appointment and the need to improve research and the sciences within the system for the benefit of the State and in view of the fact there was a negative reaction, how many contenders were there for the position? I am not asking for their names; I am asking for the number.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: That was not my question at all. My question was whether there were many known contemporaries or otherwise potential competitors for that particular position in the event that it came up or, rather, whether somebody decided to sabotage that before it happened and that way, they could determine what the outcome would be. I put it bluntly now to you.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: You are very gently and adroitly tiptoeing around it but around every question and every pitfall, there is another one. The next question must surely be, how many universities were in competition for his-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: Two that we know of.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: There were more as well, possibly.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: In view of the furore created around it, in the final analysis would it not have been useful to research all situations surrounding the potential appointment in a way so as to ascertain, for Mr. Watt's benefit, what might be necessary to avoid in the future and to avoid making a potential mistake? I am not saying there was a mistake. Dr. Holohan played a massive role. He discharged his...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: Did anybody apologise to Dr. Holohan afterwards?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I would have thought it would have been very appropriate for person of his standing, having carried out the functions he did for the previous number of years, under the circumstances, personal and otherwise, at the time, that somebody should have seen fit to apologise to him for, as it were, messing up a very important appointment. Did anybody do that? Does anybody intend to do that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: Would you think you should know? Is that not part and parcel of running the Department?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I have to move on to two other meetings. Can I just say this? You say that lessons have been learned. A number of people said lessons have been learned. What is the extent of the lessons learned? What has changed to make sure that the circumstances do not re-occur?