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Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt and chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan are to attend a meeting of the Oireachtas health committee next week.
A spokesman for Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said on Wednesday evening that the minister will attend when he receives an independent report on the cancelled secondment of Dr Holohan to Trinity College Dublin in a few weeks’ time
It comes after the Oireachtas finance committee on Wednesday said it would is to seek power to compel witnesses after Mr Watt indicated he would not appear before it, amid a deepening political row over the issue.
The committee is seeking that Mr Watt appear in relation to the appointment of Dr Tony Holohan to a secondment position in Trinity College Dublin.
In a letter on Tuesday evening, sent to the finance committee, Mr Watt said: “I have answered questions on these matters at the health committee and I do not believe it is reasonable for me to be asked to attend a different sectoral Committee to answer questions on the same issue,” he wrote, saying he would do so again at that committee when appropriate. He said it has been the practice for “some time now” that one committee should look at a particular issue “rather than duplicate examinations of issue”.
“I’m sure you would agree this is neither in the public interest, nor is it an efficient use of members or public servants’ time,” he wrote.
Speaking on Wednesday, however, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said there was “no question” of not appearing before a committee - “or committees” - once an external report was completed. He said this would also apply to Mr Watt.
Mr Donnelly also raised the prospect of a joint session. “Normally what happens when multple committess look for witnesses to come in, regularly those committees will talk to each other... sometimes joint sessions are held, we can look at what works,” he said.
Earlier this week, his spokesman said he would be happy to engage with “an Oireachtas committee” once the review was complete.
At a private meeting of the finance committee on Wednesday morning, Sinn Féin’s finance and public expenditure spokespersons sought powers to compel witnesses.
The finance committee agreed to write to the committee on parliamentary privileges and oversight seeking the power to send persons and records. There is a high bar for compellability, a power which the finance committee doesn’t have but can request.
It has to be agreed by the Dáil and Seanad, which could prove politically uncomfortable for the Government.
It then has to put another request to compel someone for a specific occasion. In a letter sent by Pearse Doherty and Mairead Farrell to committee chair John McGuinness, they wrote that they felt “left with no alternative but to seek to have greater powers of compellability”.
Scrutinising role
They said the “time has now come for this committee to reassert itself, to reclaim the vital scrutinising role it was given, and its responsibility for bringing accountability among senior positions in the public service”.
The political row over the appearance showed no sign of abating on Wednesday, with Mr McGuinness saying the Taoiseach had put a “misleading commentary” before the Dáil when he said there was an element of a witch hunt to how the issue was being pursued.
He said there had been a “determined effort by Government” to cloud the issues surrounding the appointment using smoke and mirrors, obfuscation and spin, and that his job as chair of the committee is being made “seriously difficult” by Government ministers, the Taoiseach and senior civil servants.
The committee heard testimony on the appointment from Martin Fraser, the secretary general of the Department of the Taoiseach. Mr Fraser told the committee that he first discussed the potential move by Dr Holohan to the university sector at a meeting in August of 2021, at which point it was a “far more generic proposal” than that which eventually proved so controversial.