Heimir Hallgrimsson does not feel that it is up to him to decide whether the Football Association of Ireland should introduce equal pay for the managers of Ireland's men’s and women’s teams.
The senior men's head coach was asked the question in relation to a story in the Sunday Independent at the weekend about a legal case launched by Eileen Gleeson.
The issue has been addressed by the FAI, stating it will mount "a strong legal defence" against allegations of discrimination made by former Republic of Ireland women's head coach Gleeson.
Hallgrimsson, however, would only speak about his own situation, saying that it came down to the fact that he had the option to accept or reject the job offer.
"That's not for me to decide," said Hallgrimsson. "I can only talk from my point of view in this one. I was offered a job, and it was my decision if I took it or refused it.
"A lot of coaches will do the same things as I am doing, having a lot more money for that. There's also a lot of coaches as well doing the same thing as I am doing, getting less salaries than me. So that's just us.
"I can accept a job offer or refuse it. It's my right and that has nothing to do with gender, in my opinion. So equal pay is someone else's to decide.
"It's the same with players, I would say. It's the same with players. The highest paid players in the world don't play more games or they don't do more trainings. But they are valued higher, so the evaluation in this game is somebody else's to decide."
"Well, it depends on the job. It depends on the job," he added, when asked whether there should be a move towards equal pay for managers.
The manager faced the media for the first time this week in what is a vital international window, as the Republic of Ireland begin their World Cup qualifying campaign.
The six-match group phase starts with a home clash against Hungary, followed closely by an away game in Armenia on Tuesday.
And the manager admitted that it feels like a must-win game for his side to be in with a shout of securing a top two place in the group, with the winners gaining automatic qualification and the runners-up going to the play-offs.
"Yeah, it feels like it," said Hallgrimsson. "We're not hiding away from that. It's a really, really important game for us if we want to qualify for the World Cup."
Hallgrimsson confirmed that there is only one injury concern within the group, regarding Celtic defender Liam Scales, who damaged his ankle in the weekend’s Old Firm clash against Rangers.
Scales, however, is expected to be fine for the upcoming fixtures, but would be taking it easy during the early stages of preparations.
"No [injury] doubts, no," said Hallgrimsson. "Scalesy rolled his ankle in the last Celtic game, so he has not been training. He didn't train yesterday and he's probably not going to train much today, he's going to do a little running.
"But he will be okay to train tomorrow, so he is the only scare. Others are fit and like I've said before, a lot of the players are in a good moment, exactly now. In their clubs, doing well, leading their teams.
"So yeah, we've been in a worse situation than we are actually now, so I'm looking forward to this camp."
One player that has missed out on the two games is in-form striker, Troy Parrott, who picked up an injury at his Dutch club, AZ Alkmaar, and while the manager is disappointed to be missing the striker, he is more upset for the player, who will miss out on the opportunity of representing his country in the World Cup campaign.
And Hallgrimsson revealed that Parrott’s knee injury could actually rule him out of further fixtures, with the next international window coming in early October.
"Of course, every coach would like to have a top scorer in Europe in his team," he said, when asked about Parrott’s absence.
"When something like this happens, you start to feel sorry for yourself, but imagine the player himself in such good form, I feel for him.
"It's a knee ligament, I think a medial ligament. From what I hear, there might be a possibility he will lose the next camp as well.
"Luckily we have players in his position doing really well at the moment. We cannot be thinking about players who can't help us, we're focusing on the players who are here."
Former Sligo and Shamrock Rovers striker Johnny Kenny was called in as cover in the attacking department, and Hallgrimsson believes that the Celtic man possesses similar attributes to the absent Parrott.
"I think a lot of similarities to how Troy will play," said Hallgrimsson. "Johnny is really good in going in depth, he's an energetic player. I've seen a lot of [Shamrock] Rovers games from last year where he was always running in depth. Not only for the first minute, but continuously for 90 minutes.
"That was rewarded with late goals for Rovers last year. I was happy with him, and he's been getting minutes at Celtic. Adam's [Adam Idah] move will probably give him even more minutes this season.
"I hope it goes hand in hand, I think he has a future as one of our strikers in the squad. I know he's young, he has time to improve a lot, but I think he's ready and we really want to work with him."
Watch Republic of Ireland v Hungary in World Cup qualifying on Saturday from 7pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to live radio commentary on RTÉ Radio 1
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