Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 21 April 2021
45. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the Number of international applicants to the Top Level Appointments Committee for the recently vacant position of Secretary General of the Department of Health; and the number of international applicants who were shortlisted for the position. [20796/21]
View answerOne of the reasons given for the necessity of a massive salary of €292,000 for the position of the new Secretary General of the Department of Health was the need to attract international talent. How many international applicants were there for the recently vacant post of Secretary General of the Department of Health and how many international applicants were shortlisted for the position?
As the Deputy will be aware, the selection process for the appointment to the position of Secretary General in the Department of Health was undertaken by the Top Level Appointments Committee, TLAC, with the assistance of the Public Appointments Service, PAS. The Government is committed to ensuring a policy of open recruitment and the role of TLAC, as an independent body, is to support that and ensure that the recruitment and selection process for the vast majority of senior Civil Service posts is accessible to the widest pool of qualified candidates. TLAC operates under the code of practice issued by the Commission for PAS in accordance with the principles of merit, consistency, accountability, probity, best practice and professional confidentiality.
The position of Secretary General in the Department of Health was openly advertised on 8 January 2021. Applications for this competition closed on 28 January. In addition to being published by PAS on its publicjobs.ie portal, the position was extensively advertised internationally online on selected relevant websites and through targeted social media. PAS also issued job alerts by email and text message to those who have registered their interest in positions at this level on the publicjobs.ie website. TLAC has also circulated it to Departments as well as other public service bodies. In this instance, TLAC received 23 applications for the position of Secretary General in the Department of Health. Of the 23 applications received, 20 identified as being Irish nationals and three identified as being international. Three candidates were shortlisted for final consideration under the TLAC process. All three shortlisted candidates identified as being Irish. Following the conclusion of the independent TLAC process, the appointment of the next Secretary General in the Department of Health was considered at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting. The Deputy will be aware that Mr. Robert Watt has been appointed to this critical role.
In addition, TLAC makes available an annual report to me which is published on my Department’s website. The report provides summary information on all TLAC competitions completed in the previous year, including reporting of key trends and analysis having regard to the composition of all applications for TLAC competitions.
It is interesting that the justification for the €81,000 pay increase, similar to the €350,000 per annum salary for the head of the HSE in 2019, was that we needed it to attract international applications. However, the Minister has just outlined that 20 of the 23 applicants were from this State. The old Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has been successful in his application to become the new Secretary General of the Department of Health. He had also been acting in an interim capacity before his appointment was approved by Cabinet during the week.
We had three international applicants in what we can only describe as an arduous international recruitment process where TLAC scoured the globe to find the best candidate for the job. Little did we know that he was right under our noses and already in an interim position. How fortunate was that? It was precisely for the reason of attracting international talent that we had to raise the salary by €81,000.
The job was openly advertised; that is not in dispute. In my initial reply, I outlined the various platforms that were used for the open advertisement of this particular post. Regarding the background of the applicants, while it is true that 20 of the 23 applicants described themselves as being Irish nationals, that is not to say that they did not necessarily have international experience. Three of the 23 applicants identified themselves as being international. As the Deputy knows, a short-listing process was carried out. Three candidates were shortlisted for final consideration under the TLAC process. As she knows, the members of TLAC are independent and they guard their independence closely. They conducted their job professionally and presented the Minister for Health with the recommendation of one name, which in this case was Mr. Robert Watt.
Nobody is suggesting that this position was not advertised correctly or that people from all walks of life could not apply for it,. The issue here is that we had been told specifically that the €81,000 pay increase was needed to be able to attract international talent. We now know that only three of the 23 people who applied came were international candidates. We actually had 20 people who were willing to apply for the job and indeed we already had someone already working within this Department who was willing to take up that position. That is the concern we have. It is not about the way it was advertised, but the fact that we were told that an €81,000 pay increase was needed. We now know that the person who has accepted the job has said he is happy to waive that on a temporary basis. Why was it needed in the first place?
I have seen the latest TLAC report from 2019 which outlined concerns over the downward trend for people outside the State sector applying. However, was that €81,000 increase necessary in order to attract international talent, when in fact we were so lucky that we had the person right here already working for the State? Clearly that €81,000 increase was not necessary.
When it comes to an openly advertised competition, the truth is that one never knows who will apply. This post was advertised on a number of websites. The competition was open to any person around the world who had an interest in applying for this position. A number of international candidates applied. We should not discount the international experience of the 20 candidates who applied and who described themselves as Irish.
Of the 23 applications received, 17 were from the private sector and six were from the public service. Ten of the 23 applicants were female and 13 were male. I will endeavour to provide any additional information the Deputy might need about the process. As I said, TLAC provides a report to me, as Minister, which will be published in the normal way.
