He went on a solo run, he was well used to being a law unto himself.
And what?
Part of this solo run resulted in him having complete control over the entire process including ultimate approval?
There was no one else who could have managed it and ensured that it was within the proper guidelines?
No one else who could have just done their job and are being paid a handsome amount to do so?
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Cunt should be in front of a firing squad
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My reading of it is he excluded anyone else from being involved in the process, breaking all the protocols as he went along and presented it as a fair accompli. Clearly he shouldnât have been negotiating his own secondment but he went ahead and did it.
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He didnât have the power to exclude everyone. There is a whole civil service structure in place to make sure that things are kept in line. They failed - mainly Mr Watt as Secretary General of the department in question.
Heâs the head of his office and he faced down down ministers during the pandemic on numerous occasions. Youâve put your finger on the point the that he shouldnât have the power to do what he did, and did it anyway. Clearly he shouldnât have been negotiating his own secondment.
He didnât have the power.
Those who had the ultimate approval decided to approve it. They are employed as the gatekeepers and they failed to carry out their duties as the package breached public sector rules.
Why that was done was must probably arrogance on Wattâs part or some sort of personality clash which meant he wanted Holohan out. But thatâs not whatâs relevant. The fact is that he approved it when the tax payer relies on him with his big salary to shout stop.
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T was just trying to speed up the process
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You wont get anywhere in the Civil Service trying to make things more efficient.
Watt seems to have been out of order too, thereâs two of them in it. Watt is the only one above Holohan in that department I think, you seem to be suggesting there was teams of people above Holohan not doing their jobs. Holohan is a law unto himself, this is the guy who issued press releases contrary to government policy when he didnât like their decisions, who single handedly blocked the use of antigen tests in Ireland. You seem to be saying he doesnât have the power to do all these things, but he did.
Come on.
Being the Chief Medical Officer and issuing unpopular public heath advice is a very different situation.
Holohanâs secondment is not public health advice. This is a straightforward situation which most senior people in organisations encounter every day.
There are controls there to make sure the person approving the secondment (Watt Iâd assume given Holohanâs seniority) does so properly and protects the tax payer. Thatâs Wattâs job. He approved it anyway. The book stops solely with him, no matter what narrative of big bad Tony you are trying to devise.
No it isnt. The guy has acted outside of his powers on numerous occasions.
I think they both come out of it badly. But youâre forgetting Holohan is the head of his office.
Youâre scathing at SF for not following proper protocol vetting Dow.
Youre giving T a free pass for bypassing protocols to look after his own interests.
I think youâve nailed your colours to the mast of official Ireland.
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Thatâs exactly what Iâve done. 
What does that matter?
Everyone is accountable to someone.
ah cmon farmer. he should have been nowhere near the process and had no hand or part in the funding of the gig. if he did nothing wrong, he wouldnt have walked away
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If Holohan goes off and negotiates his secondment without informing anyone else how are they supposed to oversee it? Why did he do that anyway, surely he knows itâs inappropriate and not his job?
Because someone has to sign off to approve it. Itâs the basis of any organisation structure.
That is their job. And if they donât approve in accordance with procedure they are not doing their job properly.
Holohan probably should not be negotiating his own package but he was a very senior medic and medics can have funny views of these things. Again it falls on Watt as Sec Gen and his team to make sure everything was above board.
so holohan gets to do whatever he likes because watt is shit?
as holohan was so fond of ramming down peoples throats during covid âpersonal respnsibilityâ.
Yes exactly, they were both wrong, Holohan shouldnât have been negotiating it or agreeing any of the funding arrangements and watt shouldnât have signed off on it.