Ireland’s most high-profile Public Servant, Robert Watt (pictured) is to take over the controversial position of Secretary General of the Department of Health.
The former head of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will be earning €292,000 ($A456,000) a year, a nearly €80,000 ($A125,000) a year pay rise.
The massive increase has been attacked by Opposition politicians.
Sinn Féin leader, Mary Lou McDonald said there was no rationale “for this obscene pay hike”.
Mocking Ministers’ declaration that it was needed to “attract the best and the brightest to apply”, she said: “But, lo and behold, the best and brightest were there all along, under your very noses.”
Highlighting Mr Watt’s virtues as “a senior, experienced, Public Servant”, Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Micheál Martin said the selection was independently made.
Mr Watt, who has been Secretary General at the Department of Health on an interim basis since January, immediately said he would waive the €80,000 salary increase, at least for now.
“The proposed salary for this role is higher than my current salary; I don’t think it is appropriate to take such an increase in pay given the current difficult economic conditions the country faces,” Mr Watt said.
“It had always been my intention that, if I were to be appointed to this role, I would waive this increase until the economy begins to recover and unemployment falls,” he said.
However, it will be up to him, and him alone, to decide when that changes.
Mr Watt, who has an unusually high public profile for a Public Servant, is popular with close colleagues.
In the wider Public Service he is respected though not universally loved, the issue is not the man, however, but the pay.
Even within the Public Service, the reaction to the rise has been hostile. Some people expressed anger; others, resentment and disgust.
A former official believed Mr Watt could and should have got the salary he enjoyed previously in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
“The question people are asking is was this guy the Ronaldo or Messi of the Public Service who’s so brilliant you had to pay an extra €80,000 to hold on to him?” the official asked.
Dublin, 26 April 2021
