Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps the Minister will use his remaining minute to answer the question I put to him in the first instance. I asked about the number of instances in which he has set aside the existing guidelines. We welcome the fact new measures will be put in place, but in my work as a member of both the Committee of Public Accounts and the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I have encountered at least two instances where the existing guidelines were breached. The Secretary General of the Department of Health received a pay increase of more than €80,000, with no justification, rationale or process whatsoever, and we still do not know exactly how the Minister and his colleagues in the Government came to that decision. Likewise, in the case of the chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland, a substantial increase above what the existing guidelines had laid down was approved by, in the first instance, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and then signed off by the Minister, Deputy McGrath. Again, it is very difficult to get answers as to how that decision was arrived at.

I reiterate my question. In exactly how many instances have the existing guidelines on pay been breached?

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