“There have now been a number of high profile resignations during Health Minster Stephen Donnelly’s tenure in office.”
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has “questions to answer” following Dr Ronan Glynn’s resignation as Deputy Chief Medical Officer (CMO), according to Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall.
On Tuesday (10 May), news broke that Glynn, one of the leading healthcare figures in Ireland throughout the Covid pandemic, will officially leave the role at the end of May.
It has also been confirmed that he will be taking up a new position with EY Ireland.
Glynn’s impending exit follows on from the announcement that Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan will retire from his role in July.
At first, it was announced that he would be taking on a new role at Trinity College Dublin.
However, the move raised eyebrows when it was revealed the Department of Health would fund the move under the same pay and conditions as his existing contract, leading to Holohan deciding to no longer proceed with the role.
In a statement, Shortall thanked Glynn for his service to the State, saying he has been “at the coal face of the public health response to the pandemic for more than two years”.
She also said that it is a “huge loss to the public service” that the two people who chiefly led the public health response to the pandemic have now resigned.
Highlighting that there have now been a number of “high profile resignations” during Donnelly’s tenure in office, she stated that “questions must now be asked” of the Health Minister.
“The Department of Health is chiefly to blame for Dr. Tony Holohan’s proposed secondment to Trinity College being abandoned,” her statement read.
“Is that controversy also at the root of Dr Glynn’s decision to leave the public service?
“The loss of knowledge and expertise both medics had built up leading the State’s pandemic response is clearly a huge loss to the public service.”
She then said: “There have now been a number of high profile resignations during Health Minster Stephen Donnelly’s tenure in office.
“The two individuals tasked with implementing Sláintecare, Sláintecare executive director and Department of Health assistant secretary Laura Magahy and Chairman of the Sláintecare Implementation Advisory Committee Tom Keane, resigned last year because of resistance within the HSE and the Department of Health to implementing the plan.
“Meanwhile, Dr Tony Holohan and HSE chief operations officer Ann O’Connor also tendered their resignations recently.”
Shorthall stated that given the “exodus” of high level staff from the Department of Health and the health service, questions must now be asked of the Minister leading the Department.
“We have heard a lot recently about lessons being learned within the Department,” she added.
“Is the Minister satisfied that staff are properly supported, or are there further lessons the Minister needs to learn about retaining highly qualified people in their hugely important roles?”
Main images via Sasko Lazarov and Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie
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