Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I hope to ask questions later about the recovery and resilience strategy. The wage for the post of Secretary General will be €5,615 per week, at the same time that there will be €100 per week for nurses. That is very difficult to defend. What is the rationale that this figure is necessary to attract the best candidates? Is it that the best candidates will be motivated only by sums well above €200,000?

Is the rationale that the Minister wants people to leave other roles and come into this role and that he needs to match their current pay? If that is the case, why would there not be a pay scale that allowed the Minister to be flexible if he needed to be in matching a previous wage that a candidate might have had? On the idea that people will only be incentivised to deliver their best performance by a salary of the order of €290,000, I concur with those who look to the Director General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is doing incredible work for €199,000. I challenge the idea that people need to be paid these very high figures to be motivated. There is a psychological element. Is it literally a motivation figure? Is it because the Minister has looked at the pool available? Is it an attempt to match existing wages? If that is the case, why would have flexibility rather than a built-in guaranteed amount of €292,000?

I challenge the point made around the HSE chief executive officer, CEO. The Minister stated that the decision regarding that appointment did not have knock-on consequences but he also directly cited that amount to justify a higher wage. The higher wage for the HSE CEO is, therefore, having consequences in that it is being used to justify a higher wage for the Secretary General. I am concerned that we will see a race to the top and a raising of the ceiling when what we really need to do is raise the floor. I would like the Minister to comment on those issues. I have one follow-up question specifically related to Covid and the new role.