Department of Public Expenditure noted efforts to recruit project director at lower salary failed to yield candidate of sufficient calibre to manage likely ‘largest-ever public investment project in the history of the State’
Department of Public Expenditure noted efforts to recruit project director at lower salary failed to yield candidate of sufficient calibre to manage ‘largest-ever public investment project in the history of the State’ Incoming project director for MetroLink Sean Sweeney: With an annual salary of €550,000, provision of private health insurance cover and a leased electric vehicle company car, he will be one of the highest-paid people in the Irish public service.
system following warnings that the failure to secure a suitably qualified person for the role would “represent a significant and unacceptable increase in the overall risk profile” of the project. The Department of Transport advised the Department of Public Expenditure that it would also “potentially expose the taxpayer to foreseeable and avoidable costs in the future”. At the end of June, the Department of Transport announced the appointment of Sean Sweeney, from New Zealand, as the project director for It said he would receive an annual salary of €550,000, provision of private health insurance cover as well as a leased electric vehicle company car. He would also receive moving and relocation expenses of up to €30,000. Leaving Cert student who died after being crushed by car in Wexford had been preparing vehicle for schoolDeportation orders rise sharply to more than 1,000 in past six months In a note to the Department of Public Expenditure in March seeking approval for the terms for the role, the Department of Transport described MetroLink as a transformative piece of public infrastructure that would likely be “the largest-ever public investment project in the history of the State”. The 18km MetroLink system is designed as a fully segregated, driverless and mostly underground high-capacity new rail link running between Swords and Dublin city centre. The Department of Transport said that top of the list on the risk register for Metrolink, as provided by the National Transport Authority, was that the State agency Transport Infrastructure Ireland would have insufficient resources “to support the procurement and overall delivery programme”.It said it was imperative that clarity be provided to allow a formal offer to be made to the preferred candidate for the post. “The importance of ensuring big projects are led by individuals with the required experience and capabilities is well understood, both domestically and internationally, and was underlined by the observations of the then department of public expenditure and reform’s Major Projects Advisory Group in its review of MetroLink’s preliminary business case when it noted ‘it will be critical to secure a project director with international experience of managing and leading other large metro or tunnelling projects’.” The Department of Transport argued that the open recruitment process carried out by Transport Infrastructure Ireland had shown that a lower salary rate for the post was insufficient to attract the calibre of person recommended by the Major Projects Advisory Group. On the appointment of Mr Sweeney in June, the Department of Transport said Transport Infrastructure Ireland had engaged UK-based specialist recruitment agency Newsom Consulting to assist it in conducting the recruitment process. “Following a comprehensive benchmarking exercise of remuneration in the transportation sector, it found that the mean average total remuneration, excluding any additional benefits, was €623,516.” The Department of Transport told the Department of Public Expenditure that it acknowledged that the proposed terms and conditions for the project director role were significant in a wider public pay environment. It maintained, however, that the amount involved was “appropriate to the international market within which Ireland was competing for this relatively limited pool of expertise”. The Department of Public Expenditure said that, given the need to recruit a person with relevant experience and expertise and that substantial efforts to recruit at a lower salary did not yield an appropriate candidate, its Minister, Paschal Donohoe, agreed to a salary of €550,000 for a fixed-purpose contract.The key question remains how many people are complying with deportation ordersCharlie versus Garret - origins of a rivalry: What shaped the two men that dominated Ireland’s political landscape in the 1980s?Man charged with stabbing during Olympic homecoming celebration granted bailThe myth of passport-free flying between Britain and Ireland under the Common Travel AreaOur politics team’s behind-the-scenes take on events of the day. Every Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday when the Dáil sits
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