Top civil servants in Ireland should get a year’s salary up to €255,000 at the end of their term, or offered another job at the same level as their previous job in the civil service, a new report has said.
The report, which was published this week by Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe, was conducted by the Independent Review Panel on Senior Public Service Recruitment and Pay Processes.
“The following options should be provided to all new appointments at secretary-general level in the civil service at the end of their term,” the report read.
“a) A payment equivalent of up to one year’s salary be provided; or b) employment at assistant secretary level or previously held grade, whichever is higher, in a different department or agency within the civil or public service.”
Speaking at the launch of the report this week, Minister Donohoe said that there hadn’t been a decision made as to whether or not the heads of the Departments of Equality and Housing should have increased pay.
“I welcome the Report of the Review Panel, which I have published today, and its important recommendations,” Donohoe said.
“The publication of this Report is an important step in strengthening pay and appointment practices in the public service while providing for the sustainability of the public sector pay bill and protection of the public interest.”
Reacting to the news, however, Independent TD Carol Nolan was unimpressed.
“There is microscopic life on a distant planet more in tune with public sentiment than this government or the recommendations of this report,” she said in response to the announcement.
“Whatever about providing for alternative employment, the idea of offering a substantial payment to the tune of hundreds of thousands as some sort of consolation is frankly outrageous and offensive in the extreme.”
Similarly, Aontú TD and party leader Peadar Toibín expressed his frustration with the idea.
“Dear Lord give me strength,” he tweeted.
Dear Lord give me strength. https://t.co/AeXhkJnFPI
— Peadar Tóibín TD (@Toibin1) June 27, 2023
“A return to Celtic tiger excess?” replied Eddie Punch, the General Secretary of the Irish Cattle & Sheep Farmers’ Association.
A return to Celtic tiger excess?
— Eddie Punch (@EddiePunch) June 28, 2023
Other social media users claimed that “the stench of privilege would toss a horse,” while others said that the report’s authors were “having a laugh.”
Having a laugh.
— Nuala Reville (@Fionuala1962) June 27, 2023
Flippin hell the stench of privilege would toss a horse
— @mdmak33 (@mdmak33) June 27, 2023
Other individuals drew parallels between the report’s recommendations, and recent controversial revelations about RTÉ’s payments to Ryan Tubridy.
“It sounds like Tubridy’s exit money,” one person wrote.
“This kind of thing appears to be endemic in elite circles. It’s part of a culture that needs to be stamped out.”
It sounds like Tubridy's exit money. This kind of thing appears to be endemic in elite circles. It's part of a culture that needs to be stamped out.
— TonyC (@Tony_Cghn) June 28, 2023
Another sarcastically said that it was “great timing for this report to come out,” dubbing the document “tone deaf.”
The Independent Review Panel on Senior Public Service Recruitment and Pay Processes was established in March of 2022, in the aftermath of top civil servant Robert Watt moving from the Department of Public Expenditure to become the Secretary General of the Department of Health in 2021. This move came with an annual pay increase of €81,000.
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