Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I would argue that the term limit has seen a high turnover at senior management level within the Civil Service. While I understand the thinking behind the reason it was introduced, people must consider whether it brings too great a turnover rate wherein people have been lost who one would have wished to stay on, if possible. There are pluses and minuses in respect of some of these matters. I accept that the position whereby a person who was appointed to such a position at a young age would remain there right up to retirement age, was not good either. It constitutes the other extreme to the argument. It is a question of trying to find the balance and reviewing how the policy has worked out in the light of experience. While there still are many benefits to the system, it is like every other issue, in that were one to go over it again, one should consider how one might tweak certain aspects.

The Deputy suggested that people looked after themselves. There are independent processes. The review group on higher remuneration dictated the outcomes in the context of the job given to it by the Minister for Finance to make comparisons with similar sized countries. The comparisons at assistant secretary grade were in sync with other countries, whereas other higher grades were not in sync with these countries and, therefore, reductions were recommended. If anomalies arise in respect of the grades the review body was asked to look at and other related grades, there is also provision for the Minister to deal with them and the review body report refers to that. It is not correct to say it is a ready up for higher grades to look after themselves.

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