New Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt in line for €292,000 salary in role

Mr Watt has taken up the position in the department on an interim basis but is expected to fulfil the role on a full-time basis.

However, a formal recruitment process for the senior civil service job still has to take place.

An advertisement for the secretary general role published this week showed it will come with an almost €300,000 salary.

Mr Watt will remain on his current salary of around €211,000 a year during the recruitment process. The highest secretary general salary under the current public service pay deal is €211,742.

Mr Watt is leaving the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to take up the role. Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and Taoiseach Micheál Martin are understood to have been eager for Mr Watt to oversee the Department of Health.

The high-profile civil servant is replacing acting Department of Health secretary general Colm O'Reardon who was appointed to the position after Jim Breslin left to become secretary general in the Department of Higher Education.

In the Department of Public Expenditure, Mr Watt regularly clashed with Health officials over their failure to keep budgets under control.

His appointment comes as the Government struggles to contain the third wave of Covid-19. There is also increasing political pressure to pay student nurses for their work during the pandemic.

In a statement, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform said the role of secretary general of the Department of Health is a “highly complex one with a very challenging brief”

“The increased salary for this role for a five-year term is deemed to be commensurate with the scale of the responsibilities, including the vaccine role out in the immediate term and the challenges of implementing the Government’s ambition for the role out of SláinteCare and the budget of €21bn for Health,” spokesperson said.