No replies yet... as PAC writes to Watt again
Clarity sought on pay-rise waiver
THE Dáil’s spending watchdog will write to Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt for the third time to request details of when he stopped waiving his €81,000 pay rise.
Mr Watt was appointed to the role in April 2021 amid controversy around its €292,000 salary. The wage is higher than any other secretary general role in any other government department.
As he formally accepted the job, Mr Watt acknowledged the salary was higher than the one he was in receipt of when he was appointed on an interim basis. For this reason, he stated, he would ‘waive this increase until the economy begins to recover and unemployment falls’.
In January, he finally confirmed that he was in receipt of the full salary but has repeatedly refused to say when he stopped waiving the €81,000. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) wrote to the Department of Health on January 31 and April 8 looking for clarity on the issue. However, they did not get a response from Mr Watt.
The committee yesterday decided to write to the health mandarin for a third time following a suggestion from Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy. The CavanMonaghan TD said the secretary general had made a ‘public statement’ that he was not accepting the higher wage.
‘I think the public and this committee have a right to know for how long that took place, bearing in mind that whatever portion that he didn’t take was available to the Department [of Health] for other purposes,’ he said.
PAC chairman Brian Stanley agreed to the request, noting that Mr Watt had been asked about his salary at a meeting in December and he had declined to answer the question. The committee also received confirmation at its meeting that when Mr Watt leaves the Department of Health, his successor will receive the higher salary. Comptroller and Auditor General Séamus McCarthy explained that as the salary had been sanctioned for the role in the Department of Health and not for Mr Watt directly, it remains in place after his departure. Following several public sector pay increases, Mr Watt’s salary currently stands at €294,920 and is due to increase again to over €300,000 in October.
Elsewhere, the PAC confirmed that it will request information from the Department of Health regarding the botched secondment of Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan to Trinity College Dublin. Dr Holohan confirmed that he would not take up the role following controversy over the transparency of the process that would have seen the taxpayer pay his annual salary of €187,000 through competitive research funding, administered by the Health Research Board.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly were all kept in the dark over the arrangements. Mr Stanley confirmed the PAC would write to the Department of Health requesting further information on the appointment.
The PAC is now the third committee to start an investigation into Dr Holohan’s secondment. Mr Watt and Dr Holohan will be grilled at the Oireachtas Health Committee next Wednesday, and the Finance Committee has kickstarted a process that would see it receive the power to force Mr Watt to appear before it.