TDs are to write to the Department of Health about Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan’s new career salary.
He is starting as a professor in Trinity College this summer but it has emerged his pay will still be footed from the public purse as he will be on “secondment.” Sinn Fein health spokesman David Cullinane said the Dail’s health committee want an explanation.
Independent Mattie McGrath accused Taoiseach Micheal Martin of looking after his “friend”.
He told TDs: “We learned the Department of Health will pay Dr 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 or three-tier society when people are hard-pressed to survive, yet the Government can do this for Dr Holohan, your friend.
“He can go into Trinity and the Health Department pays his money while people wait for all kinds of treatments. It is paying this kind of money and paying for a replacement as well.”
Mr Martin denied this and insisted he had “no hand, act or part” in the Chief Medical Officer’s career move.
He said: “Mr McGrath’s personalisation of it between myself and Dr Holohan should be withdrawn.”
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