Varadkar signals intent to select new health chief despite pay row

The recruitment process for a new Department of Health secretary general is set to continue despite a request from the Dáil spending watchdog to delay the appointment that comes with an €81,000 pay increase.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar told Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy that "as far as I am aware, the process to appoint a new permanent secretary general will continue".

The Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) agreed earlier this week to write to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform calling for the recruitment to be delayed pending a review of the decision to increase the salary to €292,000.

PAC members are concerned about the knock-on effects that the pay rise could have on other high-paid roles in the civil service.

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Mr Carthy, who requested that the committee write to the department to halt the process while the issue was investigated, raised the matter in the Dáil with the Tánaiste.

The Monaghan TD said the committee also dealt this week with the spiralling cost of the national children’s hospital.

“We have two different scenarios: one in which we are told that the spiralling costs cannot be addressed at this stage and another concerning an outrageous increase in salary that we can stop,” he said. “I urge the Tánaiste to ensure that it is stopped.”

‘Spiralling costs’

Mr Varadkar told him, however, that it is his understanding that the recruitment process would continue. He said the department “will benefit from being led by someone who has a good record in containing spiralling costs”.

"The new interim secretary general has that record and may save the State a lot of money in that regard," he said of Robert Watt, former secretary general of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

At the PAC meeting Mr Carthy described the salary as “unjustified expenditure”. He said the committee was not satisfied with correspondence on the position and pay.

Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath last week defended the decision to increase the salary. He noted in a letter to the committee on finance that the job at the Department of Health is a “highly complex one” and “particularly so in the midst of a global pandemic”.

Mr McGrath said he approved the final terms of the advertisement for the post on December 30th last year. The increased salary only takes effect when a permanent secretary general is appointed.

Mr McGrath also said Mr Watt had no input “into my sanctioning of the salary of €292,000”.