Former Minister for Transport Shane Ross has dismissed the Watt report into the controversy surrounding Dr Tony Holohan’s aborted secondment as “flawed” because the author was himself involved in the scandal.
The Secretary General at the Department of Health, Robert Watt, has not yet publicly released his report but aspects of it have already leaked - something Mr Ross said was one of “many” problems he had with it:
“One is that all this is leaking out - which is unsatisfactory and it just adds to the shambles of what happened in the first place,” Mr Ross told The Hard Shoulder.
“This report hasn’t even been issued yet and someone is leaking it obviously in their own interest.
“So we haven’t got the full details but we’ve got certain details.”
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In addition, Mr Ross believes that there is an inherent conflict of inflict when you ask someone who was involved in an event to draw up a report on it:
“A shambles occurred in this department [about] an appointment which was made in very dubious and questionable circumstances and what happens? They set up an inquiry into this and the person making the inquiry is Robert Watt,” he said wearily.
“Robert Watt is the biggest player in this particular controversy himself.
“So we’ve got a report which is his version of events but cannot be taken as necessarily the uncontested version of events and that’s flawed in itself.
“I can’t understand why the Taoiseach first of all paused it in this way but secondly why he decided to ask Mr Watt to ask questions to Mr Watt about Mr Watt?”
He continued:
“He also is reporting on his boss Mr Donnelly.
“So this report is obviously made by someone who has real interest in the result and I’m not saying that he’s wrong about anything at all, of course not.
“But he’s the wrong person to do it.”
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.'Very regrettable'
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has previously said that the controversy was “very regrettable” but that he maintained full confidence in Mr Watt, describing him as “a capable public servant”.
Main image: File photo of Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan. Picture by: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie
