Finance Committee likely to question Robert Watt over Department of Health appointment

Robert Watt's new salary is €81,000 more than other top-tier secretaries-general earn. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

The Oireachtas Finance Committee is likely to question Robert Watt over his appointment as the interim secretary-general at the Department of Health, with the Public Accounts Committee to examine the overall issue of high-level appointments.

Three separate Oireachtas committees have demanded answers from the Department of Public Expenditure about the re-assignment of Mr Watt, its former secretary-general, as interim secretary-general in Health and his new salary which, at €292,000, is €81,000 more than other top-tier secretaries-general earn.

The Oireachtas Finance Committee, the Public Accounts Committee and the Budget Oversight Committee have all sought answers on the department’s and Mr Watt's role in setting the salary.

It is now understood the Finance Committee will have the remit to call Mr Watt in for questioning if it chooses, with questions over whether the PAC had the remit to do so. 

The PAC may, however, undertake an examination of the process for deciding pay for top civil servants. According to a scoping note prepared for the PAC to do so, it would have to make a request to the Committee on Remit Oversight to extend its terms of reference.

That note says the current pay packages for senior executives "appear to have provided barriers to recruiting persons of suitable calibre and experience for multiple roles" but says that while the 45% increase in salary for the new secretary-general of the Department of Health may have been an attempt to address this, "the apparent ad-hoc nature of this approach might not represent best practice".

"The lack of identifiable benchmarks or reference points for the determination of remuneration for such roles lacks transparency and may give rise to significant expenditure without a clear and accountable process."

Committee member Verona Murphy, the independent TD for Wexford, said the issue was not about Mr Watt, but about the entire process of high-level appointments.