Taoiseach: 'Merit' to €292k salary of health department's boss Robert Watt

Micheál Martin said Mr Watt had taken over in the middle of a global pandemic when the Government had "allocated huge sums of money to health"

Robert Watt took over his position in the department, which had been negotiated with the increased salary to a total of €292,000, last April after serving on an interim basis since January. 

There is merit in paying the head of the Department of Health more than other civil servants, the Taoiseach has said.

Micheál Martin was speaking at the Oireachtas Select Committee on Finance, where he answered questions on a range of issues related to his Department.

Asked by Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín about the pay for the current holder of the job, Robert Watt, Mr Martin said that there was some logic to ensuring that the head of the Department was paid more highly than other Secretaries General. 

Mr Watt took over his position in the department, which had been negotiated with the increased salary to a total of €292,000, last April after serving on an interim basis since January. He has since received two pay increases and is due a third in October which will push his pay over the €300,000 mark.

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"There is merit in terms of the Secretary General's position in the Department of Health to be higher than others," Mr Martin said.

The Taoiseach said that Mr Watt had taken over in the middle of a global pandemic when the Government had "allocated huge sums of money to health".

"In my view, the Health Department needs fundamental reform and change to be fit-for-purpose, if I'm being honest about it. That was the motivating factor and something similar happened in relation to the HSE position and the Garda Síochána Commissioner position and other positions.

"I understand fully the points you are making and I understand that people may not agree with me on this. I have no personal interest in this other than as Taoiseach."

Mr Martin said that the Government does "not have time to be hanging around, to be blunt" when it comes to the reform of the health system. He said that the Department of Health has not been the "go-to Department" in the last number of years.

Mr Martin had earlier told Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty that the investigation taking place in his Department into the leaking of the Report of the Commission on Mother and Baby Homes to a Sunday newspaper before survivors had seen it has not concluded.

He told Mr Doherty that the investigation had been ongoing for 12 months but that he had not personally become involved in it. He said that he could not comment on whether Cabinet ministers had been interviewed in relation to the leak. 

Mr Doherty said that the leak was "hurtful" to survivors and said that it "appears that nothing is happening here".

"There's only so many people who would have had access to that report."