exclusive Emails reveal power struggle between Stephen Donnelly, Robert Watt and Tony Holohan over ‘new Nphet’

In one email, Department of Health secretary-general Robert Watt warned Mr Donnelly he was, in effect, being sidelined by the new Covid-19 Advisory Group four days before it was announced.

“I don’t understand what this means for my role or indeed the role of the CMO,” Mr Watt wrote on April 4.

He warned that the group’s terms of reference, as proposed by Mr Donnelly, would cut across work already under way to review the State’s pandemic preparedness.

On the day the group was announced, April 8, Dr Holohan, who had clashed with Mr Donnelly over its membership in the weeks before, told the minister it did not have “sufficient representation from public health doctors outside the Department of Health”.

The CMO, who is due to leave the public service this year, also described the minister’s exclusion of the HSE’s National Director for Public Health and National Lead for Health Protection as “incongruous” with the department’s aim to strengthen public health medicine.

In the emails, Mr Donnelly repeatedly states he wanted to attend meetings of the group himself, but Dr Holohan had previously advised both Mr Donnelly and his predecessor, Simon Harris, of his opposition to politicians attending Nphet meetings.

While stressing his desire to keep the group small, Mr Donnelly sought a number of additions while excluding others and at one point its proposed membership swelled to 27 – nearly double what Dr Holohan originally proposed.

At one stage, the minister’s membership list excluded Cillian de Gascun, the Nphet member who was a prominent figure during the pandemic.

He also excluded one of Dr Holohan’s Nphet allies, Darina O’Flanagan, special adviser to Nphet, and Lorraine Doherty, the HSE’s national clinical director for health protection.

Last year, both women refused to sign off on an expert group report on rapid antigen testing that Mr Donnelly championed. The report met with considerable opposition from the CMO’s office. Neither Dr O’Flanagan nor Dr Doherty are on the advisory group set up last month.

The documents and emails, released under Freedom of Information, show Dr Holohan submitted a proposal on the future national approach to the public health management of Covid-19 on February 17, the day of the last Nphet meeting, proposing a new “epidemiological monitoring group” .

Mr Watt told the minister he supported Dr Holohan’s proposal. However, four days later, Mr Donnelly told the CMO he wanted a smaller group, and a discussion on the terms of reference and membership before anything was finalised.

He wrote to Dr Holohan again on March 14 to say that he was “keen [to] capture as much scientific expertise and fresh thinking from as broad a cross-section as I can, while keeping the group manageably small”.

Mr Donnelly’s proposed additions included Royal College of Physicians in Ireland president Prof Mary Horgan and infectious diseases consultant Prof Paddy Mallon, both of whom were involved in Mr Donnelly’s efforts to promote wider use of antigen testing.

Other additions included Trinity academics Prof Cliona O’Farrelly and Prof Luke O’Neill of the School of Biochemistry and Immunology and UCC professor of physical chemistry John Wenger.

Mr Donnelly also proposed that in addition to monitoring the disease, the group would “incorporate more of an emphasis on science and technology, plus waning immunity” and monitor the experience in other countries.

Less than a fortnight later, the Sunday Independent revealed that Dr Holohan and the minister were at odds over the new group, with one senior source claiming the minister’s proposal “perpetuates the sense of emergency”.

Mr Donnelly’s allies downplayed any split.

By April 4, Mr Donnelly sought to finalise the group and its terms of reference, including that it would advise the Government on the use of new technologies, the “deployment of data, surveillance and analytical tools” and “on immediate threats or opportunities in relation to Covid-19”.

This prompted Mr Watt to issue a response in which he said “this is not [the] intended purpose of this group”.

He added: “What you are proposing is a more fundamental review of pandemic preparedness, which cuts across the already established Brady Group [to examine public health reform]. As secretary-general of the department, I don’t understand what this means for my role or indeed the role of the CMO.”

There is no record of any direct response from Mr Donnelly, but on April 6, the minister sought to end the debate on the matter by agreeing to terms of reference that differed from those he had drafted two days earlier – which Mr Watt had resisted – and a membership of 20.

“This proposed group is getting bigger all the time. I have already added some of the names you recommended to the group. We can add more at a later stage, if necessary,” the minister wrote to Dr Holohan.

In the same email, he asked officials to ensure the new group would be announced the following day. But it was not announced until April 8, the day Dr Holohan, who was not quoted in the press release announcing it, criticised the final terms of reference and membership.

“The membership you now propose does not have sufficient representation from public health doctors outside of the Department of Health,” Dr Holohan wrote in a note to the minister.

“Given the department’s commitment to strengthening the speciality of public health medicine…, it would be incongruous… were the incoming National Director for Public Health and the incoming National Lead for Health Protection not part of such a key leadership group.”

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