LAST UPDATE | 5 Apr 2022

TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has said he had “no hand, act or part” in the arrangement that allows for Dr Tony Holohan’s salary be paid by Department of Health when he takes up a new job as a professor in Trinity College Dublin later this year. 

It was reported last month that Dr Holohan would be stepping down as the country’s Chief Medical Officer to take up the role as a Professor of Public Health Strategy and Leadership at TCD in July. 

Recent reports show the CMO’s salary is around €187,000 per year.

A spokesperson for Trinity said the new post is an “open-ended secondment” funded by the Department of Health under the same terms as Dr Holohan’s existing contract. 

When asked about the arrangement in the Dáil today, the Taoiseach said:

“I am not familiar with the arrangements between the Department of Health and TCD and was not involved, one way or another, in the decision by the Department of Health to create this post on public health and pandemic preparedness and second the CMO to it.” 

“I had no hand, act or part in it,” he added. 

The spokesperson from Trinity said temporary transfers to another role in a different organisation are a “regular and common feature across the civil and public service to encourage inter-departmental and inter-agency co-operation and the sharing of knowledge and skills in the public interest”. 

The spokesperson said the position was “created with Dr Holohan in mind”. 

“The Professor of Public Health Strategy and Leadership (2022) was established by the College Board in the context of recent and ongoing global events, including conflict, climate change, migration and the recent pandemic, having impacted on almost every aspect of our lives,” they said. 

“The arrangements for the approval of the new Professorship were in line with normal processes and akin in some respects to the creation of a new Professorship funded by a research body.”

The University Council approved Dr Holohan’s appointment to the role last month after an interview with the selection committee at Trinity College Dublin. 

The outgoing CMO said last month that it has been “a great privilege” to hold the position. 

He said he witnessed over the past two years “the dedication of colleagues to protecting the health and wellbeing of people across Ireland”. 

The Department of Health said in a statement:

The CMO’s new role is an open-ended secondment. Secondments between organisations are a regular and common feature across the civil and public service to encourage inter-departmental and inter-agency cooperation and the sharing of knowledge and skills in the public interest.

It said that the Department is facilitating the secondment and considers that Dr Holohan’s experience “will be invaluable in developing the future of public health in Ireland through the Higher Education sector”.

“The position was created with Dr Holohan in mind,” it said. “The Professor of Public Health Strategy and Leadership (2022) was established in the context of recent and ongoing global events, including conflict, climate change, migration and the recent pandemic, having impacted on almost every aspect of our lives.”

It continued: “The arrangements for the approval of the new Professorship were in line with usual processes and akin to the creation of a new Professorship funded by a research body. Following an interview by the Selection Committee, the University Council approved the appointment of Dr Tony Holohan to the Professorship on 25 March 2022.

The Professor of Public Health Strategy and Leadership (2022) will function as an interdisciplinary professorship in the Faculties of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and Health Sciences. There has been a move in academia in this direction as the world confronts complex challenges. Trinity’s Provost Linda Doyle was Professor of Engineering and the Arts.

The role of CMO will be filled in the usual way for posts at this level subject to the appropriate sanction from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

The department said that it is anticipated there will be an open competition for a new appointment to the role of CMO under the auspices of the Public Appointments Service and the Top-Level Appointments Committee.

With reporting by Christina Finn