Party leader blasts Robert Watt pay hike

Responding to the news that the Secretary General of the Department of Health Robert Watt (pictured above) is now drawing down his full €292,000 salary, Aontú Leader TD Peadar Tóibín has hit out the pay hike which he says was ‘plucked out of thin air’, and comes as a ‘slap in the face to struggling families and businesses across the country.’

“Robert Watt went from earning a six-figure salary as a civil servant to earning near €300k as a civil servant in another department,” Deputy Tóibín said.

“Despite the economic crises facing us, a substantial pay increase was conjured up to entice Watt to the Department of Health despite the salary increase purportedly being agreed to attract international interest.

“A €81,000 pay increase is incredible most especially in the midst of a global economic shock.

“Rapid cost of living increases are reducing the purchasing power of citizens across the country.

“The government has stood full square against the idea that there would be wage inflation to maintain purchasing power in real terms.

“Yet it is one rule for the political class and another for citizens.

“As we can see from this enormous pay hike, the government are the drivers of wage inflation among their own.”

Deputy Tóibín also drew attention to the salary ratios within the Department of Health which he described as ‘enormous.’

“If you contrast this largesse with the refusal to pay front line student nurses a salary for their work,” he said.

“The salary ratios within the Dept of Health are enormous.

“The highest paid gets more than 12 times the salary of the lowest paid.

“This is an enormous salary differential, way more than exists in many other EU countries.

“For struggling families and businesses who have borne the economic brunt of Covid-19, this pay increase is a slap in the face who can barely afford to exist – let alone live – in modern day Ireland.”