Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will finish on this. The Minister gave an outline to the committee in regard to what happened at Cabinet and said that the Taoiseach verbally gave a report. Again it shows thelaissez-faire attitudein that there is not even a memorandum for a 40% increase in public sector pay for a senior civil servant. The Minister made the point that the issue was brought to Cabinet and it was noted. The point was made that Robert Watt would move to the Department of Health on an interim basis. Can the Minister clarify whether the salary increase of €81,000, a 40% increase, was actually brought to the attention of Cabinet? If so, can he explain why the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Simon Harris, disputes that and suggests that while the issue was brought, the salary was not, and, indeed, why it is reported that the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, raised this again at Cabinet, asking why the salary issue was not brought up?