Committees to probe John Callinan appointment to top civil servant role without open competition

Hugh O’Connell  4 hrs ago

5th April 2022

Two Oireachtas committees are to probe the appointment of John Callinan as Department of the Taoiseach secretary general without an open competition.

Mr Callinan will succeed Martin Fraser as the most powerful civil servant in the country, on an annual salary of up to €215,998, following agreement at Cabinet on the recommendation of the Taoiseach yesterday.

Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness, the chair of the Oireachtas Finance Committee, said last night it was “more evidence of the insiders being in control and the unwillingness of the Government to introduce the most basic reforms”. Sinn Féin said it would ask the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to examine the issue.

The appointment was made without any open competition.

Instead, civil servants were last month invited to express their interest in the position along with a short CV and a brief statement on their suitability in an email to Mr Fraser.

Micheál Martin’s spokesperson last night defended the appointment, saying it was the Taoiseach’s “prerogative” but they had no details on how many people had applied for the role or whether applicants were interviewed.

Mr Callinan has, for the past six years, served as the second secretary general in the Department of the Taoiseach for international, EU and Northern Ireland divisions. He played a central role in Brexit negotiations as the Taoiseach’s sherpa, or senior EU adviser, on the UK’s protracted withdrawal from the EU.

Having worked closely with five successive taoisigh, the Trinity graduate and former Revenue and EU official will, from May 3, hold the most senior civil service role in the country and report directly to the Taoiseach.

A Government spokesperson previously said the appointment process was the same that led to Mr Fraser’s appointment as secretary general in 2011 and that he had no role in deciding his successor. Mr Fraser will become Irish Ambassador to the UK from September.

Mr McGuinness said he would be raising the issue at a private meeting of the committee he chairs on Wednesday.

Sinn Féin’s public expenditure spokesperson Mairéad Farrell has also written to the committee asking that the matter be examined.

She cited a report compiled by the Oireachtas Finance Committee and the PAC last year in the wake of controversy over the appointment of Robert Watt as secretary general to the Department of Health last year.

“Here we have a process which departs from the findings of the report,” she said.

Another committee member, Aontú TD Peadar Tóibín, said: “Elite government jobs are a closed shop for the qualified unwashed general public.”

Sinn Féin TD and PAC member Matt Carthy said there should have been an open process for the appointment and said PAC would be querying the procedures used to make the appointment.