Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and one of the State’s top civil servants’ decision to travel to Dubai to attend a health and wellness expo has been slammed as “outrageous.”
Fianna Fáil TD and Minister Donnelly’s colleague, John McGuinness, said it was “not the business” of both Minister Donnelly and the Department of Heath’s Secretary General, Robert Watt to be at the event.
While Sinn Fein TD Rose Conway Walsh said she thought “it was a joke” when she initially heard.
There has been controversy in recent days over Mr Watt’s decision to no longer waive a €81,000 pay rise which was given to him during the height of the pandemic in April 2021.
Mr Watt was forced to reveal he had taken the pay bump - bringing his salary to over €294,000, after Government Ministers faced questioning about whether it was appropriate.
And now, Minister Donnelly and Mr Watt have faced scrutiny for travelling to a Dubai health and wellness trip given the shocking findings from a report into a HSE-run CAMHS in south Kerry.
A review into the care of more than 1,300 children who attended the HSE-run CAMHS centre in south Kerry found that 227 children received “risky” treatment and 46 came to significant harm through a doctor's diagnosis.
Reacting to the news that Minister Donnelly and Mr Watt have jetted off to Dubai, Carlow-Kilkenny TD John McGuinness said: "I would suggest that given not just the Kerry controversy, there are issues in health services generally, that the Secretary General responsible for all of that it should be at his desk, doing what needs to be done to give the services that people are demanding.
"It's clear that they've made the wrong choice at the wrong time, in relation to Dubai.
"It's a whole of government issue, and I believe that the Cabinet now need to meet to put some sort of structure on the Government for the future, and to insist that those Secretaries General that are being paid so much to do their job, particularly Mr Watt, that they should be at their desk doing it, at a time of crisis in the health service."
In a statement, the Department of Health said that Minister Donnelly and Secretary General Watt were attending and participating in Health Week in Expo 2020 and their trip included supporting Irish companies operating in the region.
When asked about the Dubai trip, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said there are a lot of “economic opportunities” that come with the Dubai expo.
Speaking to reporters in Cork on Friday, Mr Martin said: “It's the expo.
“That is a major world event with Irish healthcare companies and Enterprise Ireland and I just said we were at a summit this morning on start-ups and entrepreneurships.
“The whole emphasis was on international connectivity and exporting abroad and overseas.
“It’s part of the global Ireland 2024 initiative that they are there and that's been coordinated by the Department of Foreign Affairs..”
Mr McGuinness who is the Chairman of the Oireachtas Finance Committee said Mr Watt should appear before either the Health Committee or the Public Accounts Committee to provide details surrounding his salary.
Mr Watt had previously waived the increase until the economy improved.
Mr McGuinness said Me Watt should appear before either the Health Committee or the Public Accounts Committee to provide details surrounding his salary.
It is not known when Mr Watt decided to no longer waive his €81,000 pay rise when he was made Secretary General for the Department of Health having worked in the role at the Department of Public Expenditure.
Speaking to RTÉ, Mr McGuinness said “this was a deal done in Government Buildings” and said that a previous committee hearing couldn’t come to a proper conclusion because of “the lack of cooperation from the Taoiseach and from Robert Watt.”
He added: "This was a deal that was done in a room in Government Buildings.
"It was pitched as we were told by one of the Secretary Generals at a level that would be palatable for people €292,000, €81,000 of an increase, plus the €3,000."
"All of this was done at a time when we were in lockdown, when people were faced with all sorts of difficulties in their lives, when pension increases were being pitched at €5.
"Robert Watt refused to come to committee, he sent us a press release instead."
