Small business lobby Isme condemned figures published yesterday, showing public sector pay growing at twice the rate of inflation.

The rate of increase in the year to September was 6.2 per cent according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), while inflation averaged 2.3 per cent.

The CSO said that, excluding the health sector, the average wage for non-health workers in the public sector was €848 per week. The CSO collects employment data for the whole public sector, but has a policy of excluding the health sector from its surveys of employment data

There was a wide disparity between pay increased in the education sector, with pay rising by 7.9 per cent for teachers in VECs and institutes of technology, but by only 2.8 per cent for other third-level teaching staff. Pay rates rose by 7 per cent for civil servants and by 7.9 per cent for workers in local authorities and regional workers.

Within the semi-State sector, pay growth in the commercial sector was 4.5 per cent, compared to 5.5 per cent for other categories of semi-State workers.

Public sector employment rose by 7,200 in the 12 months to September to reach a level of 344,800. The health and education sectors accounted for most of the increases, adding 3,100 workers over the period.

Isme chief executive Mark Fielding said that public sector earnings were now 47 per cent above the average industrial wage. "The comparison between the public and private sectors is a nonsense when their insulated jobs for life, extended holidays and indexed pension entitlements are taken into account," Mr Fielding said.

He condemned the proposed benchmarking process. "The statistics confirm that benchmarking is one of the greatest scams foisted on the Irish people by the public sector, aided and abetted by a weak-kneed Government and a compliant Ibec, ravaging the public finances, without a thought for the economy."

The CSO release came alongside evidence of growing redundancies in the economy. Data released yesterday by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment show that the number of redundancies rose to 2,346 in January, a rise of 41.9 per cent on January of 2005.

Earlier this week the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and public sector union IMPACT clashed on the issue of public sector pay levels.

The ESRI said faster pay rises in the public sector were endangering competitiveness while IMPACT defended public sector pay, saying public servants were comparatively older, more qualified and better represented.