The report by Robert Watt, the Secretary General of the Department of Health, into the CMO/TCD affair is due to be completed for Government today.
Mr Watt, who oversaw the affair, is writing the report into his own department's handling of the issue, so in that regard it is not independent.
The report will be one take on events. His.
If the report says that all procedures were followed, then it is hard to see it ending there.
Opposition politicians are unlikely to buy that.
Mr Watt was brought to the Department as a reformer, with an enhanced salary.
There has been some suggestion in recent days that the Chief Medical Officer's post was to be funded through research money, via the Health Research Board.
Donnelly to receive briefing on abandoned Holohan move
The HRB is funded by the Department of Health so whatever way one looks at it, it is all taxpayers' money.
Trinity College Dublin made it clear at the outset that the post was being funded by the Department of Health.
The Department of Health statement about the matter did not reveal who was funding the post.
One of main difficulties with the issue, is the apparent failure to follow Department of Public Expenditure and Reform rules on secondments, under revised rules from December 2021.
The report will need to explain that.
While it has been suggested that Department of the Taoiseach Secretary General Martin Fraser was involved in the appointment, it appears that he only knew the CMO was interested in a move.
He was not aware of the detail it seems.
What exactly was the Department of the Taoiseach told?
The affair has been described as a debacle, bungled and ham-fisted.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly seems to have been outside of the loop on some key details.
It has been damaging to the CMO, one of the most significant figures in Ireland in decades, bad for the reputation of the Department of Health and an unexpected controversy for the Government.
It has also been damaging to Trinity College Dublin.
