Spending watchdog seeks to block formal appointment of health chief
AN OFFICIAL attempt to block the appointment of top civil servant Robert Watt as the new head of the Department of Health is under way.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has agreed to send a letter seeking the suspension of the recruitment process for the new secretary general, with Mr Watt acting as interim head of the department.
The PAC is seeking to block his formal appointment to the role with a new annual salary of €292,000 pending an examination of how the level of his remuneration was decided upon.
The decision was taken by cross-party TDs at a private meeting of the committee yesterday after a long discussion. A large majority supported it.
Members went ahead with
the unprecedented letter despite the clerk of the committee advising that it was a potential breach of standing orders. The meeting was told it could also be construed by its recipient, the Dáil Committee on Procedure and Privilege (CPP), as the PAC overstepping its powers.
The CPP, the main Leinster House committee to oversee all others, is currently considering the PAC’s request to extend its remit in order to hold hearings to consider remuneration for senior civil service posts in general.
Mr Watt would be given an €81,000 pay rise to take the role and he would be earning €81,000 more than the previous health chief.
The clerk advised the committee that it should delay sending the letter until after the CPP had ruled on whether the PAC should be allowed to examine the wider issue.
Members were warned that sending a letter seeking suspension of Mr Watt’s appointment process could jeopardise its first request.
It is understood Fine Gael TDs Colm Burke and Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and Fianna Fáil TD Paul McAuliffe were sympathetic to this advice. But everyone else in the committee was for sending the letter immediately.
“We are simply expressing an opinion that the recruitment process should be suspended until such time as whomsoever examines the process in detail, be it the PAC, Finance Committee, both or another body altogether, looks at it in detail,” one committee member told the Irish Independent.
Members decided against an alternative proposal to send a second letter to the CPP saying the letter seeking suspension of the recruitment process should not be seen as the PAC examining the issue already.
Fianna Fáil TD Marc MacSharry, Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy, Independent Verona Murphy, Social Democrat co-leader Catherine Murphy and Labour’s Sean Sherlock were all “very strong” on wanting the letter sent last night, sources said.
Mr Burke said he would have preferred to wait a few days, as suggested by the clerk.
“But in the final analysis no-one objected to the letter going,” a source said.
PAC chairman Brian Stanley (Sinn Féin) was also said to be very much in favour of the letter going out last night.
Mr Watt is a former secretary general of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, headed by Minister Michael McGrath. Mr McGrath has defended the restructuring of Mr Watt’s remuneration package.
Separately the Budgetary Oversight Committee heard that the appointment should be an open process with any person entitled to apply, with the terms attached to the position advertised in an open and transparent manner.