Daniel McConnell: Civil servants now prefer to operate with no oversight

The trojan horse of GDPR has been widely misused by government departments

In January it emerged that in his new role as head of the Department of Health Robert Watt had been claiming an €81,000 pay rise to his €300,000 a year salary, despite previously stating he would waive the rise until such time as ‘the economy begins to recover’.

About four years ago, I rang the Department of Finance press office to enquire about the publication of the annual finance accounts.

This usually contained details of pension payments to former senior office holders such as past presidents, taoisigh, ministers, and law officers.