ASTONISHING
How vice-chair of budgetary body described €81,000 pay hike
A CONTROVERSIAL €81,000 pay hike for the new head of the Department of Health has been labelled ‘astonishing’ by the vice-chair of the Dáil’s Budgetary Oversight Committee.
Mairéad Farrell told the Irish Daily Mail it was ‘shocking’ that the Government approved the ‘ludicrous’ pay rise while taxing PUP recipients.
Committee chair Neasa Hourigan, also said it is ‘unclear’ why a salary increase is necessary, saying it needs ‘further scrutiny’.
The Budgetary Oversight Committee has agreed to investigate the significant salary increase amid fears it could set a precedent for other pay increases that will lead to a ‘significant expenditure impact’.
A former secretary general at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER), Robert Watt, has been moved to the Department of Health on a temporary basis as acting secretary general. He is being paid his existing salary of €211,000.
The new secretary general of the Department of Health will get a €292,000 salary. In comparison, the Taoiseach earns €207,590 a year. Mr Watt will still earn less than the CEO of the HSE Paul Reid’s €350,000 a year, should he land the secretary general job.
There are now three Oireachtas Committees – including the powerful Public Accounts Committee – that are probing the reassignment and pay rise. A source present at yesterday’s virtual meeting of the Budgetary Oversight Committee said that the Committee wants to know whether this pay grade will have an impact on public sector pay bands into the future, and if it is in line with existing bands. TDs are concerned that raising the ceiling on public sector pay for secretary generals ‘may then create a precedent across other bands and could have a significant expenditure impact,’ the source said.
Committee chair and Green Party TD Ms Hourigan told the Irish Daily Mail that it is ‘unclear’ why the salary was increased ‘as the position seems to be within the same grade of service’.
‘Considering the current level of unemployment and hardship experienced in the country this pay increase is worthy of further scrutiny,’ she said.
Committee vice-chair Sinn Féin TD Ms Farrell told the Mail: ‘It is shocking that [the pay rise for the head of Health] came at the same week that PUP recipients were getting a tax bill. It just shows how out of touch this Government can be.’
The Department of Public Expenditure told Ms Farrell through a Parliamentary Question that the new pay rate was decided because: ‘The salary of €292,000 is commensurate with the scale of the responsibility.’
‘Then they are talking about €100 for student nurses, what about the scale of responsibility of the student nurses?’ asked Ms Farrell.
‘The scale of the salary is just ludicrous…. The €81,000 increase is equivalent to four times what some people earn. It is wrong,’ added Ms Farrell. The Sinn Féin spokeswoman for public expenditure added that it was ‘astonishing that it wasn’t signed off on by Cabinet’ and that there wasn’t a memo on it brought to Cabinet.
‘It will be very interesting to see what exactly the detailed reasoning behind the raise is,’ added Ms Farrell.
A spokesperson for the Department of the Taoiseach yesterday said that the pay raise for the next secretary general of Health was a matter for the Minister for Public Expenditure, Michael McGrath.