Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The minutes reflected five issues relating to the second option, which was to ask an existing Secretary General to move.

Four of those issues at least have been resolved in the interim. The question is why did the Minister not put the other one, namely, whether Mr. Watt was willing to move over on a permanent basis. This would have avoided increasing the salary. Why was that not teased out or tested? The Government did ask him to move over on an interim basis but why not on a permanent basis? None of us is privy to whether Mr. Watt has applied for the permanent position. He may, however, end up being in that position in future. The recruitment process could have been avoided, as could the increase in the salary up to €292,000. What the Government believes, because that is what it guesses, is that it will get nobody to fill that position unless the salary is bumped up so high. However, the Government has no empirical evidence for this. The Minister plucked a number out of the sky. There is no record at all, none whatsoever, from him of where this €292,000 figure comes from. Will the Minister indicate what the pay is for the British equivalent of the Secretary General in the Department of Health?