The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly is to be invited before an Oireachtas committee to answer questions about the abandoned appointment of former chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan to a post in Trinity College Dublin (TCD).
Maura Quinn, the former head of the Institute of Directors – who wrote an independent report on the controversy – is also to be invited to a future meeting of the committee.
The Oireachtas finance committee agreed to issue the invites during a private meeting on Wednesday afternoon.
It comes after last week’s fractious meeting with Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt.
In a combative performance Mr Watt said he disagreed with many of the conclusions of Ms Quinn’s report on the botched appointment of Mr Holohan to a specially-created post in TCD.
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín later wrote to committee chairman John McGuinness last week to request that Mr Donnelly be invited to give evidence to the committee about the “glaring discrepancies between the external report and the evidence given by Robert Watt”.
He and others also expressed an interest in inviting Ms Quinn to appear so that politicians’ could ask her about her report.
The Irish Times understands there was a brief discussion at Wednesday’s committee meeting on the prospect of further hearings on the abandoned appointment and it was agreed that Mr Donnelly and Ms Quinn will be invited to appear.
No date has yet been set for these committee meetings.
Committee chairman Mr McGuiness said last week that its examination of the secondment for Mr Holohan needed to go “a step further” than the meeting with Mr Watt suggested the committee consider holding more sessions with a view to producing its own report.
Mr Donnelly last week responded to the committee meeting involving Mr Watt saying “Ultimately, what matters is what Government accepts, not what the Civil Service accepts. Government accepts the report.”
He added: “Robert Watt is a civil servant, he implements the direction of Government.”
