Robert Watt, the top civil servant in the Department of Health, has expressed doubts about the HSE s ability to hire nearly 16,000 extra staff that have been promised this year.
Mr Watt has been appointed interim secretary general in the Department of Health, a job that will command a salary of €292,000 when it is filled permanently - an €81,000 salary increase that is now being probed by the Dáil s Public Accounts Committee.
As secretary general of the Department of Public Expenditure, Mr Watt wrote to his then counterpart in Health, Colm O Reardon, on October 27 last regarding the unprecedented €22bn budget for the Department in 2021.
My wife Ruth Buchanan left RTÉ a few years ago. Ever since she has been a happy homemaker. She has absolutely no intention of ever doing another day s work outside the home. Our paths crossed occasionally between then and now, mostly as ships in the night. The arrangement worked pretty well.
Last year that all changed with Covid-19 and my P45 from an ungrateful electorate! Her life has been more disrupted by these two events than mine.
For the first six months she banished me to my tiny study to write a book. After that I escaped from custody into the adjoining rooms in the house, tiptoeing around this unfamiliar territory.
Officials unease at request during election campaign to fill Supreme Court vacancy independent.ie - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from independent.ie Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Civil servants were uneasy about acceding to a request from the Chief Justice to fill a Supreme Court vacancy during the General Election campaign earlier this year.
Mr Justice Frank Clarke wrote to then Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan on February 4 requesting a vacancy be filled.
The position was ultimately given to former Attorney General Séamus Woulfe, but not until July, by which point a new Government had been formed.
He subsequently became embroiled in controversy over his involvement in ‘Golfgate’, while Justice Minister Helen McEntee faced questions over his selection when five sitting judges had also expressed an interest in the role.