Irish Examiner view: Poor timing for pay proposals

Former RTÉ Director General Dee Forbes with Ryan Tubridy. Forbes said she will not be at the Oireachtas meetings. Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

Most controversies are good for popularising a term or two, for taking something obscure and unremarked-upon and placing it to the forefront of the popular consciousness, if only for a while.

When Sean Quinn’s financial dealings hit the headlines, we learned about contracts for difference. 

In recent days, barter accounts have come to prominence in the RTÉ payments controversy, and so has the “exit fee” — a payment made at the end of a contract.

As a result of the general familiarity now with this latter concept, could there have been a worse time for Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe to publish the final report of the independent review panel on senior public service recruitment and pay processes?

The reason for this question is that one of the report’s key recommendations is providing the following options to new appointments at secretary general level in the civil service at the end of their term: “a) A payment equivalent of up to one year’s salary be provided; or b) employment at assistant secretary level or previously held grade...” 

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

If adopted, this would mean that having served seven years — the report’s recommended maximum term for a secretary general — earning up to €255,000 per annum, the outgoing secretary general would receive an additional payment of the same amount.

Mr Donohoe said while launching the report that the civil service faces competition from the private sector for talented candidates, and it goes without saying that the more capable and accomplished the staff of the civil service, the better that is for the country as a whole.

However, it remains to be seen whether this is the right time to adopt such a recommendation.

It was telling that at yesterday’s Oireachtas committee meeting, RTÉ representatives were at pains to point out that no exit fee was paid to Ryan Tubridy. 

It would surely be a struggle to convince the nation that a very similar provision is appropriate and necessary for civil servants who are very well-remunerated to begin with.