Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is interesting that the justification for the €81,000 pay increase, similar to the €350,000 per annum salary for the head of the HSE in 2019, was that we needed it to attract international applications. However, the Minister has just outlined that 20 of the 23 applicants were from this State. The old Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has been successful in his application to become the new Secretary General of the Department of Health. He had also been acting in an interim capacity before his appointment was approved by Cabinet during the week.

We had three international applicants in what we can only describe as an arduous international recruitment process where TLAC scoured the globe to find the best candidate for the job. Little did we know that he was right under our noses and already in an interim position. How fortunate was that? It was precisely for the reason of attracting international talent that we had to raise the salary by €81,000.

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