Department of Health and pay

A chara, – It must be totally disheartening to all people who lost their jobs due to the Covid pandemic and are now on the pandemic unemployment payment to watch the new secretary general of the Department of Health receive a massive pay rise. – Yours, etc,

DEREK HENRY CARR,

Dublin 1.

Sir, – For a variety of reasons, historic, cultural, and the ongoing failure of bureaucrats and politicians to tackle vested interests, the health sector continues to be an inefficient and ineffective mess. In fact, as public and private spending has increased massively and outputs and outcomes have deteriorated, the inefficiency and ineffectiveness have grown.

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The latest wheeze (and there have been many, of which this is not the worst) of increasing the salary for the post of secretary general in the Department of Health will not change the fundamentals and just becomes another distraction. – Yours, etc,

SEAMUS JACKSON,

Ballina,

Co Mayo.