Secretary General to the Government Martin Fraser has told the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform that he had a number of confidential conversations with Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan about his future plans.
Mr Fraser said that he naturally has such confidential conversations with colleagues about their personal situations from time to time and respects confidentiality in such circumstances.
In a letter to the committee, sent yesterday and seen by RTÉ News, Mr Fraser said that the CMO indicated to him that he was thinking of stepping down from his current role and was considering a possible role in the university sector that could make a continuing contribution to improving public health capacity in Ireland.
"He proposed a secondment from the civil service to an academic post in a university," Mr Fraser stated.
The CMO said he envisaged that some research funding would be available to support this work.
Mr Fraser said he supported the proposal and contacted the Secretary General of the Department of Health, Robert Watt, who advised him that he was dealing with the matter.
In his letter to the Committee Chairman, John McGuinness, Mr Fraser said he had no further involvement as the detailed arrangements were a matter for the Department of Health.
"The Department of the Taoiseach had no other involvement, nor did I discuss the proposal with anyone except the Chief Medical Officer and the Secretary General of the Department of Health, until there were media reports about the matter towards the end of March," Mr Fraser said.
The committee has invited Mr Fraser to a hearing next Wednesday.
Details of the open-ended secondment of the CMO to a professorship at Trinity College Dublin, to be funded by the Department of Health, were first revealed by RTÉ News on 2 April.
An outside expert has been appointed to conduct an independent review into the issues around the controversy over the now abandoned move.
The review will be undertaken by Maura Quinn, the outgoing chief executive of the Institute of Directors, and is expected to be completed by June.
Under the terms of reference announced by the Minister for Health, the review will "determine learnings from the process related to the proposed secondment of the CMO and the associated research proposal".
After the controversy arose, the CMO said he would no longer be taking up the post and would be retiring from the department in the summer.
