A report under consideration by the Irish Cabinet on the hiring of outside talent into the top echelons of the Public Service has come to a “juddering halt”, according to a Cabinet insider’s memo.
The memo on the Top-Level Appointments Commission (TLAC) report was written by Minister for Public Expenditure, Michael McGrath’s Department.
It revealed not a single appointment for the 20 top jobs in the Public Service last year came from the private sector.
A total of 94 per cent of all appointments came from within the Public Service, with six per cent from the wider public sector.
Sources said the report has caused alarm within Government, with Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister), Leo Varadkar warning the Public Service needed people with a “different perspective”.
The role of the TLAC is to recommend candidates to Ministers for the most senior positions in the Public Service, at Assistant Secretary-level and upwards.
One of its key responsibilities is to carry out its function “in an independent manner and by making its decisions strictly on the basis of the relative merit of the candidates”.
The TLAC says it aims “to strengthen the management structure of the Civil Service and to provide a means by which the best candidates can aspire to fulfilling their potential”.
Despite these lofty aims, the hiring of top bureaucrats became a source of controversy earlier this year after the €81,000 ($A128,000) increase in salary for the Secretary General of the Department of Health, which brought the top Public Service salary up to €292,000 ($A462,500).
The Government argued that a salary scale far in excess of norms in Britain and Europe was required to source ‘outside talent’.
However, it then hired the previous Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure, Robert Watt (pictured).
Representatives from the TLAC, which recommended Mr Watt for the position, declined an invitation to appear before Parliament’s Finance Committee on the grounds of not having any input into the terms and conditions.
Dublin, 17 June 2021
