LAST UPDATE | 19 Apr 2023

ROBERT WATT, THE Secretary General of the Department of Health, has rejected “most” of the findings in the report into the botched secondment of Dr Tony Holohan.

Watt also revealed that Health Minister Stephen Donnelly was “broadly aware” of the planned secondment but that he could not be briefed further due to his computer being hacked.

Appearing at the Oireachtas finance committee this afternoon, Watt told TDs that he rejected “most of the findings of the report” and that it was mainly an issue of communications that the secondment fell through.

“I regret the way it panned out,” Watt said, saying that it was motivated by public interest and that – whatever about the process – this needed to be acknowledged and accepted.

Watt’s rejection of the report’s findings is in contrast to the Government, who accepted the conclusions of the report when it was published earlier this week.

When pressed on multiple aspects of the report, Watt repeatedly rejected separate conclusions and said that it was his own opinion.

He told the committee that those involved in the secondment plan had acted in the public interest.

It comes hours after Donnelly said that there were “lessons to be learned” following the failed secondment and that everyone involved had acted in “good faith”.

The report, which was published on Monday, found that the then-Chief Medical Officer should not have been involved in aspects of the move.

However, Watt said that he disagreed with this conclusion.

The report also found that there was a lack of formal communications about the secondment between the Taoiseach, Minister for Health and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

The report also details how there was an “absence of any consultation with the Health Research Board (HRB) over the research funding element of the move.

It concludes that the proposed secondment of Holohan to TCD and the associated research funding commitments should not have been linked together.

The substantial proposed funding commitment of €2 million a year until the retirement of the Chief Medical Officer, “bypassed all of the accepted protocols for research funding and was linked atypically to one named individual”, adds the report.

There was tense back and forth questioning between Watt and finance committee chair John McGuinness, who said that his answers “fell far short of what is expected for a senior civil servant”.

Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness Oireachtas TV Oireachtas TV

“You are arrogantly dismissive of the report and I find that shocking,” McGuinness said.

“Your answers are: that’s my opinion.”

Watt rejected McGuinness’s assertion, saying that he had appeared before the committee “in good faith”.

McGuinness added that Watt set a bad example for other Secretaries General and young civil servants, with Watt refusing to comment on what he said were procedural matters.

McGuinness also called it “extraordinary” that a committee needed to seek compellability to get a Secretary General of a Department to come forward for questioning.

When asked about how much Donnelly knew about the proposed secondment and the allocated research funding, Watt said that he was “broadly aware” but that he did not receive a detailed note as the Minister was in America and his computer had been hacked.

Watt told the committee that Donnelly’s computer could not be accessed for several days and then when it had been recovered, it “slipped our mind” to inform the Minister.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Donnelly confirmed that there was a “cybersecurity risk” for the Minister and his officials.

“In March 2022 (during the St. Patrick’s Day trip to the United States) Minister Donnelly and his officials were advised not to use their devices – particularly for email – due to concerns about a cybersecurity risk,” the spokesperson said.

Government approval

Sinn Féin’s finance spokesperson, Pearse Doherty, questioned Watt on whether or not he believed that allocating the €2 million in yearly funding required approval by the Government.

In response, Watt said that he believed it did not require Government approval and that he understood that it had support of Government figures.

““I took it that people were happy to proceed,” Watt said.

Asked if he would do it again differently, Watt said that he would not but that “hindsight is great”.

“What do they call them? Monday-morning quarterbacks, I think is the expression in America they use, there’s a lot of that around of course,” Watt added.

Health committee

Earlier today, at the Oireachtas Health Committee, Donnelly said that he did not plan to take action against Watt over comments made about the secondment, which were described as “grossly inaccurate” by the then-Taoiseach’s chief of staff Deirdre Gillane.

Within the report, correspondence shows that Watt said that Gillane was aware of the secondment, while Gillane said that this was a “grossly inaccurate” assertion.

At the Oireachtas Health Committee today, Social Democrats TD Roisin Shortall said that Watt’s account was at “complete variance” to Gillane’s and asked who he believed to be correct.

In response, Donnelly said that he believed that Gillane’s account was correct and that she did not receive the details of the secondment until “much later in the day”.

“The report is very clear that Ms Gillane’s account of the timings is correct,” Donnelly said.

When questioned on Gillane’s account today, Watt said that he accepted the “substance” of her statement.

When pressed by Shortall about whether or not he would be taking action against Watt, Donnelly confirmed that he did not intend to.

Additional reporting by Press Association