Review into botched Tony Holohan secondment finds move 'breached protocols'

A review into the failed secondment of former chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan to a university role found the funding commitment "by-passed all accepted protocols."

Dr Holohan, who became a household name during the Covid-19 pandemic, had been due to take up a position with Trinity College Dublin on secondment.

However, the proposed move collapsed after political misgivings emerged about how it had come to pass, and Dr Holohan instead decided to retire from the public service.

A review into the secondment was carried out last year and was published on Monday by the Department of Health.

The report by Dr Maura Quinn found the former CMO “should not have been exclusively personally involved in the negotiation of research funding linked to [the secondment]”.

It also concluded that the proposed secondment and the associated research funding commitments should not have been linked together.

The report said the funding commitment of €2 million a year "by-passed all acceptable protocols."

In response, Dr Holohan said he hoped there will be learnings from the review for the Government departments involved.