Profile of Robert Watt: Mandarin of mystery

A highly respected but outspoken civil servant, he has never been shy in expressing his numerous dissenting opinions

Factfile

Name: Robert Watt

Age:49

Appearance: studiously hawkish

Newsworthiness: the civil servant charged with guarding the country’s finances has yet to appear before an Oireachtas committee examining the National Broadband Plan, despite repeated invitations to do so

At a meeting of the Oireachtas Public Accounts committee last March, the Fianna Fáil TD Bobby Aylward threw a curveball at Robert Watt, the secretary general of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

He questioned ...