Unseemly pub spat is no way to engage with disquiet over salary

IT WOULD be easy to dismiss as simply unseemly, a robust public exchange of views in a pub between a high-ranking civil servant and a Government minister.

But when Robert Watt, the highly paid secretary general at the Department of Health, and Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien got into a loud discussion of the minister’s criticism of the mandarin’s recent staggering €81,000 pay increase, it betrayed something a good deal more substantial.

The genesis of the disagreement was that Mr O’Brien had said at a press conference that he believed all the details of Mr Watt’s compensation package, including the gold-plated pension pot, which would be worth €8m were it to be privately funded, should be transparent.

In this instance, Mr O’Brien spoke for the average taxpayer using a large dollop of common sense.

What happened next is disputed, but the scene of the exchange is not. O’Reilly’s Bar on the corner of Dublin’s Merrion Row and Baggot Street – due to its proximity to Government Buildings – is a pub frequented by people who are tasked with the governance of this republic.

When the minister and the mandarin’s paths crossed in O’Reilly’s, words were had – regarding Mr O’Brien’s call for transparency – between two of the most powerful men in the State’s political apparatus.

The characterisation of the exchange differs. Those who know the minister’s mind suggest the exchange was loud – albeit not aggressive – and deeply inappropriate. Those who are aware of the secretary general’s view of the event, say the interaction could be better characterised as slagging.

An eyewitness – with a more neutral view – described the interaction as a ‘row’, that Mr Watt repeatedly made it clear he was not happy with how the minister had commented on his remuneration and that any reasonable observer would have deemed it not appropriate.

Senior civil servants who were aware of the interaction, have suggested it will play very poorly with the Cabinet that one of their own got what amounts to a public dressing-down by a very expensive functionary, one who makes more money than the Taoiseach does.

Mr O’Brien may be under fire for making slow progress on inventive solutions to the housing crisis, but he was elected by his constituents and confirmed as housing minister by the Dáil.

Everything about his appointment and his salary is transparent. And he is accountable to fellow TDs and voters alike, which is more than can be said for a career civil servant like Mr Watt.

It is often said that these mandarins are the permanent government. This makes it more important, not less, that they do not refuse to engage with continuing public disquiet over the fact that some of their salaries are considerably in excess of TD and ministerial pay.

Cabinet ministers have a right to challenge how public money is spent and they certainly do not need to be upbraided in public – whether it was slagging or a passive-aggressive attempt to stymie further political comment on a topic of such obvious public interest.

When Mr Watt was labelled ‘combative’ during an Oireachtas committee session this week, he replied: ‘That’s a trait. You love it or hate it. There’s nothing I can really do about it now.’

He may think there is nothing he can do to change his ways, but he would be well-advised to do so if he thinks it wise to get involved in a public spat in a public house.