Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If the Deputy looks through the correspondence and documentation in its entirety, in particular the minutes of the meeting at the end of October 2020, which was attended by me, the Taoiseach, the Minister for Health and the Secretary General to the Government, it was for the very purpose of looking at the needs in the Department of Health and the need for a new Secretary General to be put in place there for the coming years. The context of the final decision I arrived at is set out in the minutes of that meeting. A number of options were considered as part of the discussion. The option that we arrived at as a collective at the meeting was that there would be a need for an enhanced salary to attract the very best candidates from all over the world to apply for a position of significant responsibility.

It is also important to point out that just over two years ago the attempted recruitment of a CEO of the HSE was unsuccessful and the position had to be re-advertised ultimately with a larger salary sanctioned. The current salary of the CEO of the HSE is approximately €363,000. In making the final decision I looked at other salaries at very senior levels across the public service. The final salary that has been arrived at is approximately 20% less than the current salary of the chief executive officer of the HSE. It is fair to say that there is an element of judgment involved as to what level one believes is appropriate to attract candidates of the very highest calibre. It remains to be seen who has applied and ultimately who will come through the process, but if I put my hand on my heart and ask myself if the money was worth it, if somebody comes into the Department of Health following this process and he or she does a good job, then it will have been.