Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said that it does not matter that his Secretary Robert Watt does not accept the findings of a report in the abandoned secondment of Dr Tony Holohan to Trinity.
The Fianna Fáil TD also stressed that civil servants are not “sanctioned on tone” following criticism over the manner in which Mr Watt spoke to politicians at the Oireachtas Finance Committee on Wednesday.
The Department of Health Sec Gen said that he did not accept the finding of Maura Quinn’s report, which stated that Dr Holohan should not have been involved in negotiating his own secondment. It also found that Mr Watt “bypassed all of the accepted protocols for research funding” by not receiving sanction from his Minister.
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It was announced last April that Dr Holohan was leaving the civil service to take up a job in Trinity College, However, it later emerged the Department of Health would pay both Holohan his CMO salary while he was on “secondment”, while also paying the salary of a new Chief Medical Officer.
Speaking in the Mater Hospital on Thursday Minister Donnelly said that the Government had accepted Ms Quinn’s report in full.
“Ultimately, what matters is what the Government accepts, not what the Civil Service accepts,” he argued.
“Government accepts that report. The recommendations will be implemented.
“It is Government who has accepted this, it is the Government who will implement it. That is all there is to it.
“It doesn't matter whether civil servants accept or do not accept recommendations and the report. I commissioned the report. The report was sent to me. I accept the report, Government accepts the report.”
During the Committee meeting, chairman John McGuinness criticised Mr Watt’s approach, noting that it “fell well short” of what was expected of a Secretary General.
Minister Donnelly said that while there had been questions raised about “tone”, “we don’t take sanction based on tone”.
When asked by the Irish Mirror if he was afraid of Mr Watt, Minister Donnelly said that he “refuted the premise of the question”.
“Robert Watt is a civil servant. He works for me.
“I should have been told earlier. There's no question about that. The Secretary General accepted that not just now, but he accepted that a year ago.”
Mr Watt told the committee on Wednesday that he was unable to send Minister Donnelly an email containing details of the funding for the Holohan secondment as the Minister had been “hacked” while in America.
Mr Donnelly confirmed that there was a security issue and he was asked not to use his phone. However, he said that the first time he had heard Mr Watt tried to send him this email was on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, Tánaiste Micheál Martin backed Mr Watt to stay on as Secretary General of the Department of Health, saying that he had brought “stability”.
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