Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Donoghue for his question. He may be interested to know that the salary scale of Secretaries General and equivalent grades is a matter of public record and is disclosed in replies to parliamentary questions. Also, circulars detailing the salaries applicable to each civil servant grade, including the Secretary General grade, are published and are publicly available on the circulars page of the Gov.ie website. The most recent circular listing out the salary scales of civil servants, Circular 19/2022, was published on 12 October and includes Secretary General salary scales and notes the amount of the highest rate paid to a Secretary General.

There have been no changes to these disclosure arrangements that would have had the effect of restricting transparency in relation to Secretary General salaries. In fact, the appropriation accounts for 2021 included new additional disclosure requirements in relation to salaries of Accounting Officers. As the Deputy is aware, the legislative basis for the annual appropriation accounts is the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866. In the interests of transparency and accountability, each year my Department considers requirements for more enhanced reporting while also considering any legal constraints on disclosing information. Any extra information disclosed in the accounts is in the form of notes to the accounts. These notes to the accounts aid the reader to better understand the expenditure and receipts for each Government Department and office of Government.

In that regard, in March of this year my Department issued an instruction to all Accounting Officers requesting additional reporting requirements, including the disclosure of the Accounting Officer's gross salary in the appropriation accounts for each of the 45 Vote-holding Departments, offices of Government and other entities. This additional reporting requirement commenced with the 2021 appropriation account. These audited appropriation accounts were published by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General on 30 September 2022.

My Department is considering further enhancing the information in the salary note for this year's appropriation accounts. The enhancements being considered include provision of salary band data as well as further information on the gross remuneration of Accounting Officers. The provision of information in relation to gross remuneration reflects the fact that decisions regarding voluntary deductions from salaries are a personal matter. I will come back to this in my next response.

See this speech in context