Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 2 February 2022
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services
Vote 11 - Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (Revised)
Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source
I agree with the Minister on that. A substantial salary package - the highest ever awarded to an Irish civil servant and, in fact, one of the highest packages available to any civil servant in the world - is attributed to a position on the basis of the importance of the job the holder of that position has to do. The Minister mentioned the policy objectives: the implementation of Sláintecare, reform of the health services, addressing waiting lists and dealing with the aftermath of the pandemic. Nevertheless, the Secretary General could fail in all those respects. He or she could oversee growing waiting lists, continued mismanagement and a move from one fiasco to another in the health services, but the Secretary General's salary would continue to grow and his or her pension entitlements would continue to be locked in regardless. Does the Minister see that as a failure of the contract that was put in place for this position in that it undermines the credibility of the argument the Government has put forward?
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