Former chief medical officer Tony Holohan to become Trinity College professor – two years after botched appointment to university

He is already an adjunct professor in University College Dublin.

He announced on X today that he is now also to be adjunct profession in the School of Medicine in Trinity.

According to Trinity, adjunct academic staff are not appointed on the basis of competition, and Trinity is not their primary employer.

If they are paid it is for the specific purpose in teaching or research on a fee-per-item basis which may be annualised to a fixed annual salary.

It comes two years after the controversy around the botched appointment of Dr Holohan as a professor in public health at Trinity College.

Dr Holohan was due to take up the post but after it emerged he would remain an employee of the Department of Health and would continue to be paid by the department on his chief medical officer’s salary of €187,000, he decided not to take it up.

A spokeswoman for Trinity College confirmed that Dr Holohan’s post as adjunct professor is not a salaried position.

He is due to take up a post as a consultant in the administrative side of the HSE’s national cancer control programme on a salary of around €257,000.

It emerged in 2022 that Dr Holohan would remain an employee of the Department of Health on his chief medical officer’s salary when he took up a post as Prof of Public Health strategy.

However, this was not made clear when his appointment to Trinity was first announced and it was only later revealed.

The Irish Independent learned that he was told he could return to the Department of Health on full salary - which at the time was around €187,000- if his planned new academic job did not work out as intended.

The promise was made to Dr Holohan in internal correspondence by Department Secretary General Robert Watt in internal correspondence dated March 16 , 2022 to coincide with a letter of intent sent by Mr Watt to Trinity College.

That outlined a "ring fenced" €2m a year in research funding for the university as part of Dr Holohan's appointment as Prof of Public Health Strategy while remaining an employee of the Department of Health which would also pay his salary.

It was one of 45 pieces of correspondence sought by the Irish Independent under Freedom of Information legislation in April 2022 but was eventually released nearly two years later.

The release was objected to by the Department and Dr Holohan and was the subject of lengthy deliberation by the Information Commissioner.

In his letter to the chief medical officer Mr Watt said: "If the terms of the arrangements do not proceed as intended by my letter of intent, then it is understood that you retain the right as a secondee to return to the Department of Health and be assigned a role, not necessarily that of Chief Medical Officer, until your retirement with terms and conditions as per the post of Chief Medical Officer."

The emails throw further light on the behind- the-scenes movements around the controversy.

A Department of Health press release March 2022 said Dr Holohan was taking up a post in Trinity College but there was no reference to the €2m a year research funding or the fact he would remain a €187,000 employee of the Department of Health. That only emerged in April through the media.

The correspondence also reveals the email sent to the then Taoiseach Micheal Martin at 11.29am on April 5, 2022 after his office sought information. It followed an Irish Independent story that morning saying Dr Holohan would be taking up the post in Trinity but remaining an employee of the Department.

A senior official in a note to Mr Watt said: "Taoiseach's [office] have asked for a note on this given media coverage today. Main issue to convey is that secondments are normal and regular feature across the civil and public services."

But the next day Mr Watt in another email said :"T [Taoiseach] has asked for a note on this - I thought we had provided one already but more is sought."

A series of emails went back and forth in the department until late that night with the minister getting “relevant letters “ from Mr Watt, including the letter of intent.

Two days later Mr Martin when quizzed by journalists said he was pausing the process and asked for a report.

The same evening Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, who had believed Dr Holohan was leaving the Department for the Trinity post until further revelations in the media, expressed concerns about the €2m a year funding set out in the letter of intent sent to the university.

He told Mr Watt: "The funding approach laid out in the letter is problematic. We do need to invest in public health, leadership, future pandemic preparedness .But let's discuss the best way to do it next week. I have relayed it to Tony."

Mr Watt said it was a letter of intent, not commitment.

But the following day Dr Holohan said he would not be taking up the Trinity post but would go on to resign as chief medical officer in July.

A Department of Health commissioned report into the Trinity plan, by Maura Quinn, released earlier this year, concluded the “ring-fenced” €2m a year commitment was made without government approval and it bypassed protocols. She said Dr Holohan should not have been exclusively personally involved in the negotiation of research funding.

On the publication of the Quinn report in April Dr Holohan said the move was with the full knowledge of the secretaries general of the Department of Health and Department of Taoiseach. Formal engagement only happened after receiving the support and approval from the Secretary General of the Department of Health. In his memoir "We Have to Talk" he said a finding he was exclusively personally involved in negotiation of research funding was not supported by facts.

Mr Watt has said he did not accept the findings of the Quinn report and believed the secondment process was appropriate.

Dr Holohan stepped down as chief medical officer in July 2022 and his since written his memoirs.