PAC requests appointment of new Secretary-General at Health Department to be paused

The proposed salary for the full-time holder of the role is €292,000, some €81,000 more than other top-tier secretaries general are paid.

Robert Watt is currently carrying out the duties of the secretary general at the Department of Health on an interim basis. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

The Dáil's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is to write to the Department of Public Expenditure asking it to freeze the appointment of the new Secretary-General of the Department of Health.

The committee wants a procedure for salaries in excess of pay caps to be formally codified before the competition is reopened. The proposed salary for the new full-time holder of the role is €292,000, €81,000 more than top-tier secretaries-general are paid.

TDs decided in private today to send the letter, despite legal advice that it may be outside its remit to look at the salary for the job, which is being done on an interim basis by Robert Watt, the former Secretary-General at the Department of Expenditure.

Deputies have raised questions about Mr Watt's role in setting the salary.

Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy described the decision as "an important and welcome move that should be heeded by Government".

“The Public Accounts Committee has a responsibility to oversee public expenditure and to highlight unjustified spending of taxpayers' money.

"The committee has, in response to correspondence received from DPER, come to the view that there was no process, no rationale and no justification provided for the proposed salary increase of €81,000 for the new Secretary-General of the Department of Health.

“The committee is also of the view that if the recruitment process continues, it could lead to an unjustified outlay by the state both in this specific instance and with any future pay-claims which will certainly arise."

The PAC was told that it may be outside its remit to examine the issue but that it could ask the Oireachtas Committee on Remit Oversight to expand its standing orders.

The move comes as Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath confirmed that there would be no more breaches of salary scales for top-level civil servants.

“There are no plans for any other salary changes in the context of any secretaries general vacancies that will arise in the months ahead,” Mr McGrath told the Committee on Budgetary Oversight. 

“There won’t be.”