THIS State has an excellent but very badly paid public service and is in danger of ending up with very mediocre people, the industrialist Dr Michael Smurfit told the committee.
"As the economy grows, the best brains in government will be lured away by industry and we will end up with very mediocre people," he said. The public service had been fortunate to keep the talent it had ever the past 30 years. "I do not believe that will continue," he said.
He cited as examples of underpaid State employees the first chief executive of Telecom Eireann, Mr Tom Byrnes, and his successor, Mr Fergus McGovern. Dr Smurfit, who is chairman and chief executive of the Jefferson Smurfit Group, is a former chairman of Telecom.
Mr McGovern "was undoubtedly one of the worst paid managers with the highest responsibility I have ever dealt with in my life," he said. The treatment of both Mr Byrnes and Mr McGovern by the State was "both abject and appalling ... Let us not forget that Mr Byrnes and Mr McGovern were involved during the most important and dramatic changes in the history of the company."
Their rewards were "pathetic", and there was an urgent need for politicians to give better pay to the vital key people who run semi states, State Departments and the government in general. "In my view it is much better to pay a few well rather than a lot badly."
He proposed an appointments commission for the very senior jobs within the public service. This would ensure greater accountability, and that no one can "do deals in the back room" over such posts.
He said the most important difference between those, like him, who make things and those who spend our available resources was accountability. "Lack of accountability is the single biggest weakness for both state sponsored bodies and government Departments". There had to be a system of performance measurement in the public service.
He also said he believed the State was now building a base for economic development and soundness that it had not had before. The situation was far better than in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, and the economy was on a very sustainable growth path. The Smurfit organisation "would be far more willing to invest risk capital today than 10 years ago by a factor of 10".