Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to answer every one of the Deputy's questions but I ask to be given time to do so. There is no point in just firing questions at me and not allowing me the scope to answer them. There was a very open and frank discussion at the meeting to which I referred a moment ago. I believe the minutes of that meeting were provided to the committee and have been published. A number of options were looked at at that time as to how the issue could be faced up to. We were dealing with a global pandemic. The Department of Health was under enormous strain and there was a leadership vacuum there. Somebody was acting up and doing the very best they could, but there was a need for a permanent appointment. The collective view arrived at was that in order to attract a top-quality candidate, there would be a need to go beyond the normal terms. We discussed previous examples of that and the history of it. As I said earlier, there was, in 2018, a failed attempt to recruit a CEO for the HSE on a salary that, I think, exceeded €300,000. That was the reality. One of the options that was looked at was whether anyone from among all the existing Secretaries General would be interested in going into the role on a permanent basis. In the round, however, the collective view was that an enhanced package was warranted and that there should be an open, public competition. I was particularly keen, especially if we were to offer an enhanced package, that everyone should be given an opportunity to apply for the position. That is subsequently what happened when that process took place in the subsequent months. There was a lot of interest in the role, as one would expect, including a number of international candidates. The candidates selected came through the top-level appointments committee process and through a number of interviews, and the Minister for Health was offered one name out of that process. He then brought that name to the Government for approval.