Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 January 2021
246. Deputy Marc MacSharry asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the reason an increased salary of some €292,000 has been allocated to the position of Secretary General for the Department of Health. [4153/21]
View answer247. Deputy Marc MacSharry asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he has provided direct approval and sanctioning of a salary increase for the new position of Secretary General of the Department of Health; the details of the business case for such an increase in remuneration; if the account as reported in a national print media article dated 18 January 2020 quoting a person (details supplied) is correct; the reason a full memo was not brought to Cabinet; and the reason a message was not brought by him to Dáil Éireann. [4154/21]
View answer248. Deputy Marc MacSharry asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if a public statement advising the absence of a memo to Cabinet for formal approval of the proposed increase of the rate of pay for the position of Secretary General of the Department of Health to €292,000 is in line with Articles 11 and 17 of the Constitution and the views of the Minister for Health (details supplied) that such an increase would not be included in advised voted expenditure; and his plans to bring a message to Dáil Éireann for approval of such an increase in the rate of remuneration applicable to the position, which is far outside increases prescribed in the public service pay agreements. [4155/21]
View answer249. Deputy Marc MacSharry asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if, in the interests of the taxpayer, TLAC will immediately suspend the formal recruitment of a new Secretary General of the Department of Health, pending the full consideration of the matter by the Committee of Public Accounts and Dáil Éireann to ensure the optimum public scrutiny and approval of public expenditure and the proposed increase in the salary to avoid the setting of further poor precedent by proceeding without such scrutiny and examination. [4156/21]
View answer258. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the background process and the precise details surrounding the new remuneration package for the new Secretary General at the Department of Health; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3726/21]
View answerI 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.
