Dr Tony Holohan has “questions to answer” over his “unusual” job switch from Chief Medical Officer (CMO) to Trinity Professor, according to the Public Expenditure Minister, Michael McGrath.
The new post in Trinity will continue to be paid by the taxpayer as the Department of Health will be footing the salary bill under a ‘secondment’ arrangement.
Dr Holohan will continue to be paid his current salary of €187,000 when he makes the move to academic life later this year, which is understood to be considerably more than what professors in equivalent positions would be paid.
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A new CMO will also be hired in the near future and the Department of Health will pick up the tab here too.
Dr Holohan is due to speak to members of the Oireachtas health committee during a private session Thursday morning where he can expect to be grilled on the new job details.
Mr McGrath was asked whether he knew anything about the job move when he was launching the latest Exchequer results in the Department of Finance Wednesday and he said he didn’t.
He said: “There are characteristics of this that are unusual and it could have been handled better in the sense that, when confirmation was provided that Dr Holohan was leaving the Department of Health, I think the assumption was that it was a permanent move.
“Secondments by their nature are generally temporary in nature, this particular one is open-ended in nature - which is unusual.
“So there are questions that arise there that will have to be answered.”
The Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, later told RTE’s Drivetime that he supports Mr McGrath looking for more information on the secondment.
Concerns were raised over the new arrangement in Leinster House in the Dáil on Tuesday.
Social Democrats co-leader, Róisín Shortall, described the job move as “odd” while Solidarity/People Before Profit TD, Gino Kenny, said it was “unusual.”
Rural Independents TD, Mattie McGrath, went further, accusing the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, of looking after his “friend.”
The Taoiseach responded firmly, saying he had “no hand, act or part” in the job move.
And his spokesman, the Government Press Secretary, told reporters later that the Taoiseach knew nothing about the details of Dr Holohan’s job move.
Mattie McGrath asked the Taoiseach in the Dáil: “This morning we learned that the Department of Health will pay former Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Tony Holohan's €187,000 salary while he dips his toe in academia in Trinity College Dublin.
“The Department of Health will also have to pay his replacement.
“Is this not evidence of a cosy cartel and a two-tier or three-tier society when people are hard-pressed to try and survive, yet the Government can do this for Dr. Holohan, your friend.”
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READ MORE: Dr Tony Holohan's €187,000 salary for new role at Trinity College to be paid by Department of Health
