THE GREEN Party has accused the chairman of the Higher Public Servants Remuneration Committee of being “misguided” and “blinkered” in his criticism of Government plans for senior civil servant recruitment.
Committee chairman Tony O'Brien told The Irish Timesthis week that pay differentials would result in the Government being disappointed by the response to their plan to open up top public-service jobs to private-sector applicants.
The plan was announced by Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan last week. Mr O’Brien said it was the culture 30 years ago that the cream of the country went for public sector jobs.
However, he said, the private sector would “attract the cream in the future”.
“The pay differentials are still enormous. You may get the odd one [who moves to the public service] but by and large you won’t”, Mr O’Brien said.
Green Party Senator Dan Boyle said Mr O’Brien comments were unhelpful.
“The idea that the Civil Service could not benefit from external expertise is blinkered. Likewise, at nearly €200,000, the salary of a senior civil servant is definitely not too low to attract suitably talented candidates – especially considering the pension, end-of-service and other benefits that civil servants receive.”
