Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Fraser. I am in full agreement with him on that. Over the past months, the key thing that has continually been used as reasoning for this pay increase was that first, it was commensurate with the scale of responsibility but as Deputy Stanley clearly outlined, people with similar jobs are on much less pay. Also, as Deputy Stanley said, the Secretary General with responsibility for housing, Mr. Fraser himself and other Secretaries General have just the same scale of responsibility. Then there was the idea that it was needed to attract international talent but ultimately, we had someone who was working for the State already, doing an excellent job where he was who was fully able and capable of taking on the job which he did. He has stated clearly that he was happy to waive that increase and that he did not feel it was needed at this time.

I wrote to the Commission for Public Service Appointments on this matter on the basis that it is the regulator when it comes to public service appointments. I understand Mr. Fraser is on its board. I asked it about this because in many ways, the appointment ended up being a lateral move within the public service and we know that in respect of public pay, lateral moves should not mean any change in pay. The commission has told me it was not appropriate for it to comment on this. That is a matter for it to say, but can Mr. Fraser explain to me why he thinks the regulator might feel it would not be appropriate to comment on a matter pertaining to the regulation of public service appointments and how this differs from it not to be able to comment?