In a letter to the committee, Fraser said he had a “number of confidential conversations” with Dr Holohan about his future plans. 

Towards the end of February, the chief medical officer indicated to Fraser that he was thinking of stepping down from his current role, and was considering a possible role in the university sector, said Fraser. 

The secretary general said Dr Holohan “proposed a secondment from the civil service to an academic post in a university”. Fraser states in his letter that the chief medical officer “envisaged that some research funding would be made available to support his work”. 

He indicates that he was supportive of the proposal, but said he did not raise the matter with Taoiseach Micheál Martin prior to media reports on the secondment at the end of March.

Robert Watt

Fraser said the only people he discussed it with at that point was the Secretary General of the Department of Health Robert Watt, who advised him that he was “dealing with the matter”. 

“I had no further involvement as the detailed arrangements were a matter for the Department of Health,” states Fraser. 

Watt last week said that the Taoiseach and other members of the Government were not aware of the matter, but said that Fraser was aware of the proposed secondment move in late February.

In a separate letter to the committee, the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure David Moloney said the department only received a sanction request from the Department of Health for the filling of the role of the chief medical officer on 31 March. 

In that correspondence, the Department of Health indicated that the current CMO would be moving to Trinity College to take up a position through a “long-term secondment” and it was expected that the secondment would last until the retirement of Dr Holohan. 

“It was at that stage that this information had been provided in relation to the proposed secondment,” said Moloney in the letter. 

He states that on 14 April, the Department of Health requested approval to proceed with the process of appointing a new CMO, and the Department of Public Expenditure sanctioned the request to advertise the post on 21 April. 

The secretary general goes on to point to the civil service secondment policy, stating that he cannot attend next week’s committee meeting as he is on annual leave on that date. 

Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín, a member of the Oireachtas Finance Committee, has today written to the Committee Chairperson, TD John McGuinness asking that a request to attend the committee be issued to the Taoiseach and Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly. 

“The revelations today from the Secretary General at the Department of an Taoiseach paint a bleak picture of how governmental departments in this country function,” he said.

Tóibín said said: “Fraser, having expressed his support for the plans, fired the whole thing over to Robert Watt, without discussing it with the Taoiseach. Not only did he not discuss the issue with the Taoiseach, but he has now said that he in fact he did not discuss it with anyone in the Department”.

“Now if I was the Minister for Health or the Taoiseach I’d be very concerned that a civil servant took such a huge decision without consultation with anyone in Cabinet. The Minister and the Taoiseach should be in charge of their respective departments, and should expect to be kept informed of these decisions which have implications for the exchequer,” he added.

The Taoiseach and the Minister for Health must come before the Oireachtas Finance Committee and explain why they don’t know what’s going on in their departments, he said.