Watt can have the cash if he knocks HSE into shape

BETWEEN quarantine and vaccine supplies, Stephen Donnelly and the Department of Health have a lot to deal with. That his team had the time, let alone interest, to enquire why his name was so rarely mentioned in tweets from his own department was bound to raise eyebrows.

Furthermore, they were eager to discover how Donnelly’s tweet mentions compared to his constituency rival Simon Harris.

It is a little unseemly for any publicly paid representative to seek to emulate the higher education minister’s almost infantile attachment to social media. It’s also the case that while Donnelly was left redfaced by the incident, the involvement of Robert Watt, the acting secretary general of the department went unremarked. Watt seems to have taken up the cudgels on behalf of his minister. He raised the matter with the department’s communications director, saying that it had to be discussed.

Watt’s appointment as head of the Department of Health has been controversial, owing to the salary for the role being inflated to €292,000, making it the best-paying gig in the civil service.

Defenders say the generous salary reflects the added strains of managing a complex vaccine rollout as well as the introduction of Sláintecare, which promises to revolutionise our health service. How many times have we heard that before? We won’t hold our breath.

Yet, if Mr Watt defies the sceptics and knocks a dysfunctional, moneyburning and shambolic health service into shape, I shall not grudge him a penny of his salary. Or even the odd ridiculous email about ministerial tweets.