Department 'cannot stop' recruitment process for new top civil servant at Dept of Health

The position is described as 'highly complex' and 'challenging'.

The job is being done on an interim basis by Robert Watt. File photo: Oireachtas TV/PA

The Department of Public Expenditure has told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that it cannot stop the recruitment process for the new Secretary General of the Department of Health.

The committee had asked that a procedure for salaries in excess of pay caps for senior civil servants be formally codified before the competition is re-opened. 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.