Ireland’s most senior Public Servant has admitted it would be better if there was a “scientific” benchmarking process behind pay increases for senior officials.
Speaking in the wake of the Robert Watt controversy, Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Martin Fraser (pictured) said there was no “big process” behind setting the salary for Mr Watt’s position as Secretary General in the Department of Health.
Mr Watt salary is €292,000 ($A460,000) a year — an increase of €81,000 ($A127,000).
Mr Watt, the former Secretary General in the Department of Public Expenditure, has said he will waive the increase until such time as the economy recovers and unemployment falls.
It follows criticism of the pay hike by the Opposition and some Government politicians.
Speaking to the Oireachtas’ (Parliament’s) Finance Committee, Mr Fraser also said it would have been much better if there was more transparency when it came to setting salaries for senior Public Servants.
He said the rationale for the decision to increase the salary was empirical evidence on the types of candidates who applied for those roles and that remuneration for similar roles in the private sector was higher.
Mr Fraser said Minister for Public Expenditure, Michael McGrath was happy to increase the salary but “he didn’t want anything above €300,000 ($A472,000) so that was the rationale for coming in under €300,000”.
Dublin, 5 June 2021
