I propose to take Questions Nos. 246 to 249, inclusive, and 258 together.
The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has statutory responsibility for the remuneration of civil servants, as set out in Section 17 of the Civil Service Regulation Act 1956 (as amended by the Ministers and Secretaries Act 2011):
Miscellaneous powers of the Minister in relation to the Civil Service.
17. (1) The Minister shall be responsible for the following matters-
(a) the regulation and control of the Civil Service,
(b) the classification, re-classification, numbers and remuneration of civil servants,
(c) the fixing of;
(i) the terms and conditions of service of civil servants, and
(ii) the conditions governing the promotion of civil servants.
(2) The Minister may, for the purpose of subsection (1) of this section, make such arrangements as he thinks fit and may cancel or vary those arrangements.
(3) Any arrangements made by the Minister before the commencement of this Act in relation to any of the matters mentioned in subsection (1) of this section and not cancelled before such commencement shall continue in force and be deemed to have been made under subsection (2) of this section.
In meeting these responsibilities, the following was taken into account:
- That the post of Secretary General in the Department of Health is a highly complex one with a very challenging brief, particularly so in the midst of a global pandemic.
- The role will require an individual with the ability, ambition and experience to take on this large portfolio with a Department of almost 600 staff and 19 non-commercial state bodies under its aegis, including the HSE and a sector employing over 125,000 people.
- The very significant responsibilities attached to this role including: the ongoing management of the response to the COVID public health emergency; the COVID vaccine rollout programme in the immediate term; implementing the Government’s ambition for the rollout of Sláintecare; and the management of the greatly increased budget of €22 billion for Health in 2021. The responsibilities are outlined in detail in the advertisement booklet, which is publicly available at the link below:
https://publicjobs.ie/en/index.php?option=com_jobsearch&view=jobdetails&Itemid=263&cid=128369&campaignId=2101301
- That a salary of €292,000 is commensurate with the scale of these responsibilities and the unique challenges attached to this role, not least at the current time.
In the context of the above, I engaged with the Taoiseach, the Minister for Health and the Secretary General to the Government. On 6th January Cabinet was informed that the TLAC process for the position in Health was about to commence and that, for the reasons outlined above, it would attract improved terms and conditions reflecting the responsibilities of the post.
A recruitment process is now underway with the position internationally advertised on 8 January 2021 by the Public Appointments Service (PAS) on behalf of the Top Level Appointments Committee (TLAC). The Minister for Health will bring a memo on the proposed appointment of the new Secretary General once the process is completed.