FOUR SENIOR officials appointed by the Government in recent months have access to the same controversial retirement and severance arrangements as former top civil servant Dermot McCarthy.
The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform said that the appointments of the four “were made in line with government decision of March 5th, 1987, concerning appointments of secretaries general of departments which provides for early retirement terms and a special severance gratuity”.
Changes to the retirement arrangements for secretaries general, which are being planned by the Government, will only apply to future appointments. While the recently appointed secretaries general will have the same retirement and severance terms, pay rates and the value of the severance payment – which is based on pay levels – will be on a reduced scale.
There has been considerable controversy in recent weeks since it emerged that Mr McCarthy, who stepped down as secretary general to the Government in July, will receive an annual pension of €142,670, a once-off lump sum of €428,011 and a separate special severance payment of €142,670.
These arrangements were based on retirement terms drawn up by the Top Level Appointments Committee (TLAC) which has a key role in the appointment of senior civil servants and accepted by the then government in the 1980s.
In answer to a series of written parliamentary questions in recent days, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin said: “As regards the current incumbents of secretary general posts, their appointments were based on TLAC terms that were agreed by the previous government at the time of the incumbents’ appointments.
“The Government will be required at the end of the secretary generals’ term of office to decide in the case of those under 60 years of age whether they are to be assigned to another civil or public service post, or to grant them TLAC retirement terms. In the case of a retiring secretary general over 60 years, they are granted the TLAC retirement terms. It should be noted that these terms form part of the terms and conditions of appointment of present secretaries general.”
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said last week he could not alter the pension and severance payments of senior public servants as they had been set by the previous government. Four secretaries general have been appointed since the Government came into office: Robert Watt (Department of Public Expenditure and Reform), Martin Fraser (Department of the Taoiseach), Brian Purcell (Department of Justice and Equality) and Jim Breslin (Department of Children and Youth Affairs).