Health Minister says secondment of Holohan to TCD 'positive' for Ireland
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Loading... - Angela Auge
- 06 Apr 2022
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The secondment of outgoing Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan to take up a role at Trinity College Dublin is "really positive", and a move that the country will benefit from, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said.
Dr Holohan announced last month that he is stepping down from his position as CMO to take on a new role as Professor of Public Health Strategy and Leadership at TCD.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland Minister Donnelly said Dr Holohan will be leading national research on pandemic preparedness, which "he is uniquely qualified to do".
He said that he was fully supportive of the move and it mirrored what Asian countries did after the SARS outbreak in order to be better prepared for future similar events.
"He'll be organising collaborations across universities with the World Health Organization and with the EU ... it's incredibly important work.
"The Department would have been paying for him within the department anyway so, ultimately the winners out of this are the State, in that we have someone with his experience who can lead this work."
Mr Donnelly said he did not sign off on the secondment of Dr Holohan but he fully supports it.
"I think we're very lucky to have him leading this research."
There is a very close collaboration between healthcare and academia in Ireland, he said, and there are consultants in many hospitals who also have academic posts and are involved in research and training new clinicians.
Minister Donnelly said the Department of Health would not be paying for two chief medical officers.
Dr Holohan will be moving an important health research role, he said, and the Department of Health will appoint a new chief medical officer.
Yesterday, the Taoiseach told the Dáil that he had "no hand, act or part" in the secondment of outgoing Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan in order to take up a role at Trinity College Dublin.
A TCD spokesperson confirmed that the role will be "funded by the Department of Health ... under the same terms and conditions of his existing contract".
The spokesperson added: "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."
The TCD role was not put out to open competition and the university said it "was created with Dr Holohan in mind".
It was created by the college board in the context of recent and ongoing global events, including conflict, climate change, migration and the recent pandemic. Read More...
