The next secretary general of the Department of Health will have a lower salary than that approved for incumbent Robert Watt.
The Cabinet approved a plan on Tuesday to commence a top-level appointments process for the position – which is the most senior in the department – with Watt’s term expiring in April.
The salary for the position, according to multiple senior sources with knowledge of the plan, will be €280,000 per year – the highest grade payable to a secretary general.
Watt’s sanctioned salary rose to just over €297,000 in 2022. That is likely to have increased further given general pay rises since then across the public service.
Cabinet was briefed on the plan by Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers on Tuesday.
A Government source argued that the salary rate is being “standardised”, saying that the previous rate was decided due to the increased complexity of the role during the Covid pandemic and significant reforms under way in the health system.
Several Government sources said their expectation was that Watt is now likely to move on from the role. One senior figure pointed to the fact that the Cabinet decision was to run an open competition rather than for an extension to his term.
The salary approved for Watt caused controversy after his initial appointment on an interim basis was made, with a report by combined Oireachtas committees finding it was conducted in an “ad hoc” manner with no formal process engaged in around identifying an interim appointee or setting the salary level.
At that time the approved salary was €81,000 higher than Watt’s existing salary of €211,000, which he earned as secretary general of the Department of Public Expenditure.
When he was appointed on a permanent basis, he waived the increased portion of his salary, but the Department of Health later confirmed he would accept the full salary.
It is expected that the position will be advertised publicly in the coming days.
A Government spokeswoman said: “The term of the current secretary general of the Department of Health concludes shortly, therefore the Government has agreed that a top-level appointment committee process to fill the role will commence shortly.”
Watt has had a high-profile career in the public service after earlier working in the private sector. He joined the Department of Finance and then became secretary general of the newly created Department of Public Expenditure in 2011.
He had a reputation as a reformer, but his role in holding the line on spending during the downturn led to confrontations as well. He was appointed to the Department of Health during the Covid pandemic, and was seen as improving the management of the response to the virus and a key figure in the State’s response.
However, he also found himself fighting controversy over his role in the abandoned secondment of former chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan to a position in Trinity College Dublin, which led to tense exchanges with government officials and Oireachtas committees.