The application form says the new secretary-general of the Department of Health must have a "particular blend of resilience and flexibility needed" to manage the challenges and complexities of the health service. Resilience is certainly a word those who have dealt with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform secretary-general Robert Watt would use about him. Flexibility less so. His appointment, albeit on an interim basis for now, as the top civil servant in the Department of Health, has caused some ripples in political as well as civil services circles. After a decade closely guarding the public purse strings, Watt will now lead the department that is the biggest drain on the public purse.