State’s former chief medical officer sharply critical in memoir of leaks from report into the controversial proposed move
“Through these conversations, I was assured that there would be support for me to be seconded,” he writes in his memoir, We Need to Talk. “I had all the support I needed from both Martin and Robert. I had no reason to believe it would be anything other than a straightforward matter to progress.
Dr Holohan is also sharply critical of leaks from a report into the matter, including to The Irish Times. He says excerpts from the report were “being leaked in advance of publication and ‘spun’ to create damage for me and to unfairly shift responsibility to me for what had happened”. “In all of this, the question arises – do I believe that I received fair treatment in the overall handling of my proposed secondment, subsequent report and related commentary? No, I don’t,” writing that “there was a failure to inform and clear it with the relevant people”.
He adds: “I cannot say that all of the deaths in January 2021 could have been prevented. But I think we should have prevented a lot more of them.”