Taoiseach Micheal Martin has put Dr Tony Holohan’s appointment to a new €187,000 a year taxpayer-funded Trinity College professorship on hold.
Mr Martin said that Dr Holohan’s job switch from Chief Medical Officer to academia has been put on hold pending a report from the Minister for Health to be presented to him on Monday.
He said: “In my view, it should be paused, there should be a reassessment.”
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The Taoiseach intervened from Helsinki in Finland where he was meeting with his Finnish counterpart, Prime Minister Sanna Marin, and President Sauli Niinisto.
Tanaiste, Leo Varadkar, was also out on Friday morning and he said he agreed with the Taoiseach that the appointment should be stalled until further questions are answered.
Speaking in Helsinki, Mr Martin said: “I’ve asked the Minister for Health for a full report on the entire process that led up to this appointment and the Minister has asked the Secretary General [Robert Watt] of the Department of Health for that report.
“There seems to have been a number of strands to this, special research strands.
“We all understand the merit in creating additional capacity and a greater research platform around pandemic preparedness given the experiences we’ve had over the last two years and clearly the CMO is in a very pivotal position in that regard, but there has to be transparency, there has to be good process and procedure.
“I don't see this as just a human resource issue, or a personnel issue in its own right, which I can understand. But there was a research perspective to this.
“There's a more medium-term perspective to this and in my view, it should be paused, there should be a reassessment as to how the objectives that are behind this can be realised in a better and more transparent way.
“There should be an assessment of all of the aspects of this.”
Mr Varadkar added: “We think it’s appropriate because it does involve taxpayers’ money, that the appointment be paused for a short period.”
However, there is still considerable anger and confusion over the appointment in Leinster House.
Fianna Fáil TD, John McGuinness, chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Finance Public Expenditure and Reform, said that a number of questions remain about the secondment.
He said the committee has "serious concerns" over the process of the appointment and that Mr Donnelly was not told.
"There is the issue of the pay scale in the college, which is €150,000 per professor and the department will now be paying Dr Holohan €187,000," he told RTE Radio One's Morning Ireland.
"That raises questions about public service policy."
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