Department taking legal advice on publishing salaries of secretaries general

Secretary general at the Department of Health Robert Watt was subject to a highly critical report by the joint committee on finance.

The Department of Public Expenditure (DPER) says it is currently considering legal advice from the Attorney General about the legal soundness of publishing details of the salaries of secretaries general.

The issue had arisen in January after it emerged that Robert Watt in his new role as head of the Department of Health had been claiming an €81,000 pay rise to his salary, despite previously stating he would waive the rise until such time as “the economy begins to recover”.

In an update for the Public Accounts Committee, DPER said publishing the actual remuneration of a secretary general “might stray into issues of personal information, as well as matters related to tax legislation”.

Advice from the Attorney General on the matter was finally received on September 27, DPER said, some eight months after the matter was first raised at PAC.

“The department is considering this advice at present,” it said.

Publishing the remuneration of a secretary general has not hitherto been the norm in terms of departmental accounts, despite the pay packages of CEOs of State bodies being routinely published on an annual basis.

Mr Watt’s move from the DPER to the Department of Health in April 2021 saw him attain a salary that was €81,000 in excess of other secretaries general.

The manner of the appointment was subsequently subject to a highly critical report by the joint committee on finance, which said that Mr Watt had behaved with “an utter disregard” for transparency.

Staffing for An Bord Pleanála

Addressing the ongoing controversy on planning decisions by and legal challenges to An Bord Pleanála, Mr Moloney said DPER has approved the provision of 30 additional staff to the planning authority, as recently promised by the Minister for Housing, in order to help ease the backlog of applications.

It is about the time taken to process the planning, that is a shared concern, we have given additional resources, but it is very complex,” he said.

Separately, Mr Moloney was quizzed on DPER’s decision to discontinue the funding for State-sponsored agency Benefacts, which had compiled financial data on charitable organisations, a decision which saw the body close earlier this year with the loss of 21 jobs.

Numerous organisations, including the Central Statistics Office, have since said the information provided by Benefacts was invaluable.

Mr Moloney said the CSO has been “afforded the opportunity to take over the database and didn’t take it over”.

“I’m not in a position to assess why they did not do so,” he said.