Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As we all know, there is still a large gender gap at higher management levels in the Civil Service. The Civil Service renewal plan, whose implementation rests with the Minister for Finance for Public Expenditure and Reform, is working to change this. Our executive leadership programme is making a major difference. Thanks to encouragement and mentoring, more women are taking part in that programme. Since 2010, there has been a doubling of the number of women at deputy and assistant secretary levels but we have further to go, particularly at Secretary General level. Other initiatives in the plan that are driving this change include a wide range of initiatives to improve gender balance across the Civil Service, a study of gender in senior Civil Service positions in Ireland which was published in December 2017 and the development of guidance for Departments and an information pack on maternity and adoptive leave. I accept that we have more work to do in this area, particularly when it comes to Secretaries General.

In terms of problems attracting candidates and retaining them in employment, the Public Service Pay Commission was established to advise the Government on aspects of the public service remuneration policy. In the second phase of its work, the commission was tasked by its terms of reference to undertake an examination of whether and to what extent there are difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff in the public service.

As part of this final module, the commission considered the issues and policy challenges associated with pay setting for top level posts in the public service at the current time, as evidenced by recent competitions to appoint a Garda Commissioner and a new director general of the HSE. In its final report, the commission included findings regarding senior executive recruitment and retention issues. It noted as a matter of fact that the pay reductions introduced during the fiscal crisis were structured with greater reductions at the most senior levels, steps that in my view, were appropriate at the time. The commission also noted that the unwinding of pay reductions, which commenced in 2015, has been progressive and focused rightly on prioritising restoration for those at the lower income levels first. That action will be ongoing at more senior levels until July 2022 under the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act 2017, which provides a statutory roadmap for the continued controlled unwinding of FEMPI as it applies to all public servants, including those in the most senior positions.

On the question of pay determination for future such posts, the commission stated it would be appropriate, should it be decided to conduct a review of remuneration of senior level posts, that the review body on higher remuneration in the public sector, which was in place between 1969 and 2009, be reconstituted for this purpose, given the diversity of posts in question, as well as the range of issues affecting them. I understand the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has asked officials in his Department to examine the re-establishment of this review body.

In regard to Deputy Martin's assertion that financial decisions are being re-politicised, I would not accept that assertion. In fact, I would give an example of the contrary, which is the sports capital programme. When I was in the Department with the Minister, Deputy Ring, we put in place very clear rules to determine which projects were valid or invalid, and we put in place a points system which means it is the officials who score the different projects using that points system.

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