Tony Holohan secondment
Deputy Conway-Walsh questioned the public cost and fairness of Dr. Tony Holohan's move to Trinity while retaining pay and pension arrangements, linking it to wider precarious work in third level. The Taoiseach said he was not familiar with the full arrangements but believed the secondment arose from Trinity's pandemic preparedness work and Holohan's expertise would benefit public health.
It is not unusual for senior policymakers to move into academia and research, but it is for a civil servant to maintain his salary and pension entitlements from the Department of Health when he leaves the Civil Service and becomes an academic. While Trinity is a public institution, it has the highest level of private revenue of any college. It is not true to say that his €187,000 salary would be the same cost on the public purse whether he was at Trinity or in the Department of Health. During the week, I spoke to a lecturer who has been in her institution for 18 years teaching and researching. There are thousands more like her. The only thing that she has done wrong is not to have friends in powerful positions. Does the Taoiseach stand over the stark inequality and lack of transparency around Dr. Holohan's secondment?
Comment on this
No, I did not mention any other person. I am sorry; I spoke to a lecturer, but I did not mention her name. There are thousands of people on precarious working conditions in our third level institutions. The inequality is stark indeed.
Comment on this
As I said yesterday, I was not familiar with the arrangements that were arrived at between the Department of Health, the CMO and TCD. I believe the position was created by Trinity College Dublin in terms of pandemic preparedness and public health and, arising from that, there was a secondment arrangement. Again, though, I was not aware of the details of that. I think the Chief Medical Officer has, without question, enormous experience, which would be of benefit to the public health arena, research and so on in terms of the pandemic and preparedness for future pandemics. Of that, there is no doubt. There are joint arrangements between universities and research bodies. My understanding is that the Health Research Board is involved here. I am not fully au fait with all of the details on it, but many of those are jointly funded.
