McGuinness angry over Cabinet ministers’ ‘snub’ to salary probe

THE powerful Finance Committee is at war with the Coalition over its refusal to appear before an inquiry into the controversial decision to more than triple the pay of the Health Department’s Secretary General.

The nation’s most powerful civil servant, Martin Fraser, and the current temporary Secretary General in Health, Robert Watt, have also yet to respond to the request that they appear.

Mr Watt has applied for the €292,000 post – a salary that increased from €81,000 per year.

Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, an irate Mr McGuinness said this was another example of how ‘bureaucratic autocrats have seized the reins of power from a supine political class’. He said: ‘Ireland is a country without an elected government... The unelected civil servants have taken over and our politicians are the lap dogs who only bark when their masters command.’

The perceived snub to the Finance Committee has created another headache for the increasingly embattled Taoiseach Micheál Martin.

Committee boss John McGuinness said the failure of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and Mr Ryan to attend is another indication of ‘the weakness of character in our political leaders who are content to be housekeepers for the top civil service mandarins’. He added that the Committee had agreed in February to undertake an examination of senior executive’s remuneration in the public service.

He noted that ‘no response has been received from the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, the Minister for Finance, the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications, and Transport, the Secretary General to the Department of the Taoiseach and the Acting Secretary General of the Department of Health’.

One source noted: ‘This is a calculated snub... Those who are being sent in are, with respect, from the second tier of politics and the public sector. They are trying to put us in our place.’