Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 2 June 2021
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Remuneration of Senior Civil Servants: Discussion
Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
Mr. Fraser stated that a lower salary might have attracted only civil servants but we ended up with a civil servant filling the position.
Is Mr. Fraser aware that the secretary general of the Scottish department of health earns €173,000, when the figure is converted into euro? Scotland has a population of almost 6 million people. In Finland, which has a population of more than 5 million, the secretary general of the department there earns €131,000. The Director-General of the World Health Organization is paid €190,000. The secretary general of the Department of Health and Social Care in England, which is in the middle of an almighty crisis with Covid and is trying to keep the National Health Service, NHS, on the road over there, earns €190,000. Where did the figure of €292,000 come from? Surely to God it would be the job of senior civil servants involved in setting up this process to examine why these salaries in other countries. How can Finland get the best people to work for €131,000?