Watt says cancellation of Holohan’s TCD post a ‘matter of regret’

Top civil servant to tell politicians details around funding of chief medical officer’s salary yet to be agreed

Robert Watt: ‘It is a matter of regret to me that, what I viewed as an important and innovative proposal for increasing our public health capacity in Ireland, is not now going ahead’. Picture: Bryan Meade

Robert Watt, the secretary general of the Department of Health, will tomorrow tell TDs the funding of Tony Holohan’s now-cancelled professorship post at Trinity College Dublin was to be agreed between the university, the Department of Health and the Health Research Board (HRB).

Watt will tomorrow appear in front of the Oireachtas health committee where he will tell members that it is a “matter of regret” to him that the appointment of Holohan, the outgoing ...