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

I always saw a distinction between what occurs in the political world and recruitment for non-political appointments, be they Civil Service appointments or appointments more generally to agencies. I did not enter politics with an eye on salaries. Obviously, I believe in the basic principle that a Deputy's salary should be linked to that of a principal officer because I can recall a time, before the principle was put into effect, when politicians were competing with each other to try to reduce pay to see who was the best in the class and to get the best media commentary. I believed the reform many years ago to connect a Deputy's salary to that of a principal officer was good. Now and again, of course, when there are public service pay increases more generally, the focus falls on the increase for Deputies. When it comes to the salary of Ministers and the Taoiseach, the remuneration is high. I do not have any issue with that other than that if we are trying to attract people from different careers and fields, we have to look differently at it.

It is interesting, if one thinks about it, that the State, at local and national levels, has no difficulty in contracting individuals and companies, but mainly companies, at much higher levels of expenditure. We need to reconsider that. Many issues have arisen in the Department of Health over many years. Genuinely, given the nature of the budget, more than €20 billion, the position is as I describe. We saw issues associated with the children's hospital manifesting themselves. I am of the view we have a chance and opportunity. Through Covid, we can learn a lot. Sláintecare, with full Oireachtas agreement, has really transformed our approach to health. I am not saying it is down to one individual — of course it is not — but it sends a signal that we are going to deal with health positively and constructively through giving it a higher focus in terms of both policy and execution. We did that with the HSE, which was important, and we did it with the Garda Commissioner, the National Treasury Management Agency and other bodies. It was effective. I appreciate that not everybody would agree with me on this but that is my view on it.