Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness says Stephen Donnelly should resign if he can’t account for Robert Watt’s salary

 – 3h ago

Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness has said Health Minister Stephen Donnelly should resign if he is not willing to account for his role in the controversial €81,000 pay rise given to Department of Health secretary-general Robert Watt.

Mr McGuinness said Mr Watt should also consider his position over the long-running controversy and accused the two senior figures of showing contempt to the Oireachtas Finance Committee by refusing to come before them to discuss the salary top-up.

“Minister Donnelly and Secretary-General Watt have refused to appear before any committees to explain their actions,” he said. “That is a contemptuous act, ill-becoming of a minister or a senior civil servant.

“In so doing, they have disrespected the Dáil and laid a trail for others to follow that damages governance, accountability and transparency in this country. They should be ashamed of themselves. I believe both Minister Donnelly and Secretary General Watt should fully account for their actions to the Dáil or resign.”

Mr McGuinness’s comments followed Mr Donnelly launching a scathing attack on his party colleague for criticising his recent trip to Dubai for a health and wellness conference in the middle of the controversy over Mr Watt’s salary.

In an extraordinary rebuke by a minister of a backbench TD, Mr Donnelly brought up a more than decade-old controversy involving Mr McGuinness seeking to bring his wife on a state visit when he was junior minister.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1’s Today with Claire Byrne, the minister said he will take “no lectures” from Mr McGuinness.

“I note that John McGuinness when he was a junior minister flew to Dubai and Chicago and many other places and quoted Nietzsche, I think, at his line minister, saying why family members should go with him, so I won’t be taking any lectures from John McGuinness,” he said.

The minister said he wasn’t “sniping” at Mr McGuinness and added that he was one of eight ministers who went to the Dubai conference.

“It was an important thing to do and it was unfortunate that John did what he did but I need to get on and focus on the work.”

Mr McGuinness said the minister was trying “divert attention from their unusual trip to Dubai” and the “extraordinary salary”.

“I reject entirely any attempt by Mr Watt or Mr Donnelly to use me in an effort to take the spotlight off their trip to Dubai (and) Mr Watt’s salary increase,” he said.