Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has backed Tánaiste Micheál Martin’s chief of staff in a row with Department of Health Secretary General Robert Watt over Tony Holohan’s botched secondment.
Dr Holohan was expected to move to Trinity College Dublin on secondment from the Department of Health last year.
However, he later stood back from the position following controversy over proposals for the Department to give Trinity €2 million a year to facilitate the move.
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There was also backlash over the fact that Leo Varadkar, Mr Martin and Minister Donnelly were not informed that it was a secondment. They believed at the time that Mr Holohan was completely leaving the civil service and only found out about the secondment through the media.
A report carried out by Maura Quinn published this week found that Dr Holohan should not have been involved in negotiating the terms of the arrangement.
However, there was also a row in the report over suggestions from Mr Watt that Martin Fraser, then-Secretary to the Government, told him "he told the Taoiseach’s Chief of Staff, Ms Deirdre Gillane" about the move.
He said: "The facts indicate that the Secretary to the Government knew all the critical details regarding the proposed secondment and the proposal to increase research funding and that the Chief of Staff was informed."
In a fiery rebuttal, Ms Gillane stated that Mr Watt’s claims were "grossly inaccurate and unwarranted". She stated that the first time she heard of Dr Holohan moving on from his position was when she was contacted by the media.
Appearing in front of the Oireachtas Health Committee on Wednesday morning, Minister Donnelly backed Ms Gillane’s account over his own Secretary General.
He said: "I think the report is very clear in stating, and I fully agree, that the [then] Taoiseach’s Chief of Staff did not have the details on this until the time that she indicated she did, which was much later in the day.
"I agree with the report and the report is very clear that Ms Gillane’s account of the timing is correct."
When asked by Social Democrats TD Róisín Shortall if any action would be taken against Mr Watt due to the disagreement about the timelines, Mr Donnelly said there would not be. He also pointed out that he would be in front of the Oireachtas Finance Committee on Wednesday afternoon.
Minister Donnelly also told Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane that he imagines that Mr Watt’s comments "might have been a misunderstanding of testimony given by the Secretary General of the Taoiseach".
He added: "I do believe that everybody involved was acting in good faith.
"I do believe that the proposed secondment… In fact, probably most of us here believe that actually it would have been very valuable to have Dr Holohan with his unique experience.
"I just want to say that we must be open to learning lessons. My very clear view is that everybody involved was acting in good faith and trying to do the right thing."
The Quinn review found that Dr Holohan should not have been as involved in organising his secondment.
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