Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is my position, having been a former Minister with responsibility for health. I believe the increase is appropriate to the position. I believe that long after the incumbent leaves the position the Secretary General of the Department of Health should get higher remuneration than Secretaries General of other Departments. It is an extraordinary Department, one that is way above any other Department in terms of the responsibility. I have served in four Departments.

This is a policy matter in the first instance. In some areas where we have done this before in the public service it has worked, whether it be in respect of the National Treasury Management Agency, National Asset Management Agency, the chief executive of the HSE, the Garda Commissioner or the financial regulator. In my view it is not only about one individual in the Department but rather the Department of Health and the responsibilities it has in terms of the allocation of the overall budget that goes to the Department, the transformation required in health, the need to address the issues during the Covid-19 pandemic, the implementation of the transformative programme of Sláintecare and the vast budget. We have had issues around the national children's hospital and so on.

The Secretary General has now taken the position in respect of himself and that was his decision. My view is we need to work on the Department of Health and transform it. The Department has a major challenge ahead. The issues the Department of Health has to deal with in any one year, even outside of the pandemic, are on a scale that is higher than other Departments.