Pressure mounts to halt appointment of  top health official on €292k salary

Proposed pay packet is €81,000 more than top secretaries general receive

Robert Watt has moved to the Department of Health as general secretary on an interim basis. 

Political pressure is mounting for the process to appoint a new top health official on a salary of €292,000 a year to be halted.

The chairs of two Oireachtas committees are to meet today to see if they can avoid clashing over their investigations into the proposed salary level.

The Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee has already called for the process of the appointment to be halted and its chair Brian Stanley is to meet John McGuinness, chair of the Oireachtas Finance Committee, at the behest of the Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghail.

Sources have suggested the Finance Committee will join and support this call to pause the process, which is being driven by Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Michael McGrath.

Controversy has surrounded the decision to award the salary level, which is €81,000 more than top secretaries general get paid. 

The former secretary general at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Robert Watt, has moved to the Department of Health on an interim basis on his previous salary of €211,000.

In a letter to both chairs, obtained by the Irish Examiner, the Ceann Comhairle, as head of the oversight remit committee, has called on the two men to coordinate their efforts.

The Remit Committee, in its letter, said that before making its final determination on the matter, it agreed to request the chairs and clerks of both committees to engage in a discussion on this matter.

The letter stated: 

The purpose of such discussion is to agree an approach which will ensure that the work of the PAC adds value and informs the consideration of the matter by the Finance Committee.

“The Remit Committee has agreed to meet again at 4pm today. Therefore, I am directed by the Ceann Comhairle as chair of the Remit Committee to request that you revert in writing on the outcome of the discussions no later than 2pm."

The letter said it is accepted that the matters referred to in the PAC request fall within the remit of the Finance Committee and are appropriate for that committee to examine.

Remit committee members were also conscious that PAC has discussed the matter and has engaged in correspondence on it. 

In this context, members noted that the submission received from the Finance Committee stated that "it would welcome the opportunity for PAC to express its opinion on correspondence it may have received on the matter and requests that PAC share any opinions it has expressed on said correspondence with the Joint Committee for its consideration".