THE GOVERNMENT HAS defended the €85,000 spent during the process of hiring an internal candidate to replace Kevin Cardiff as the secretary general of the Department of Finance.

John Moran was promoted from his position as Second Secretary in the department and head of the banking division last week following the departure of Cardiff who took up his role at the European Court of Auditors earlier this month following much controversy.

TV3 News revealed this evening that the government will eventually spend €85,000 on the process of looking for Cardiff’s successor.  This includes €10,000 spent on advertising and around €75,000 on two different executive search firms.

These firms have been named as AMROP, one of the world’s largest executive search companies and subsequently MERC, an Irish company which describes it self as a “market leader in the field of executive search”.

The Department of Finance said in a statement said that the “Top Level Appointments Committee (TLAC), in association with the Public Appointments Service (PAS), sought to identify the best possible field” for the position.

The Department had begun advertising for the secretary general’s job on the PAS website in November before Cardiff had even secured his new position at the European Court of Auditors which was fraught with problems after he was initially rejected by an EU committee.

The advertisement stated that the successful candidate would need to give “effective management and leadership of the Department of Finance” and asked for “excellent co-ordination” with key agencies such as the Central Bank and the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).

The Department of Finance statement this evening continued: “In addition to media advertising, the use of executive search is generally accepted best practice as a key measure to achieve this [the appointment].”

The statement added: “The process generated a strong field of highly capable candidates from both inside and outside the public service. Having evaluated the candidates, TLAC recommended a shortlist to Government from which the appointment was made.”

Read: Kevin Cardiff’s Department of Finance successor named

Read: Kevin Cardiff takes up Court of Auditors post