Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The announcement that the Secretary General of the Minister's Department is to retire early next year came as a surprise to the Minister. He said that it almost knocked him out of his standing. Coming at the same time as the notification to him of the first email to the Tánaiste, surely it warranted further examination. Now we discover that the Secretary General has brought his retirement forward to today, taking away the opportunity for him to be held to account. In his email to Departmental staff, which has already been quoted, he said, "The Department has been subject to a barrage of unwarranted criticism in recent days and most particularly today". It would appear that he is taking issue with what was said by the Taoiseach today in his description of the Minister's Department as "dysfunctional".

I wish to ask three brief questions. Who is charge of the Department administratively from today? What specific steps is the Minister putting in place to find a new Secretary General and will the process in this regard include a trawl outside the normal top level appointments committee, TLAC, process? Can the Minister explain why the Secretary General is leaving today rather than serving his full notice period, as we understood would happen?

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