Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

If anything, the Secretaries General should be held to a higher standard than other Civil Servants because they have so much influence and because they are paid so much, and because they are people who set an example for everybody else. Often in an organisation, the personality, behaviour and character at the head of it flows down and is reflected in the behaviours of all the people who report to that person and so on. It forms the character of the organisation. That is why the performance management review group was set up in the Civil Service a number of years ago to specifically manage the performance of Secretaries General and to have an accountability framework so there was an organisation keeping track of their behaviour. As I said, the legislation to reform the Civil Service sanctions and penalties is set for priority legislation in this term. It is open to the Deputy, if she feels there is some way she would like to amend it, that we will have a full and open process on that. I am sure many Ministers and ex-Ministers will have views on how the rules should be changed.

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