From top: Robert Watt and Dr Tony Holohan
The Watt Report into the abandoned appointment of Dr Tony Holohan to a post at TCD says the Minister for Health was not informed of details or that it was even a secondment, reports @FergalBowers | https://t.co/1Np5NOQJbJ pic.twitter.com/4QwuXbrmaQ
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) April 12, 2022
This afternoon.
Via RTÉ news:
The Watt Report into the abandoned appointment of Dr Tony Holohan to a post at TCD says the Minister for Health was not informed of details or that it was even a secondment, RTÉ News has learned.
Robert Watt, Department Secretary General, has argued that it was his area of delegated responsibility under the law, so the minister did not need to be informed.
It says there are many secondments, perhaps 50/60 between the Department, HSE, other bodies and that it not an unusual thing and not a matter for the minister, but a staffing and personnel issue.
It indicates that the CMO may have initiated the contact with Trinity and it developed from there.
The report acknowledges that more information sooner would have been better, but that the appointment leaked and the department had to put out statements.
It says the funding had not been agreed fully at that stage, but it may have been done through the Health Research Board…
More as we get it.
Minister did not need to be informed of CMO secondment – Watt Report (RTE)