Approximately 100 top civil servants, judges, hospital consultants and chief executives of state-sponsored bodies will have their jobs compared and measured against similar roles in the private sector by Government-appointed consultants.
The Government organisation which deals with pay among senior public servants - the Review Body On Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector - this week called for applications from consultancy firms prepared to carry out the evaluation exercise.
If the exercise throws up positive findings, it could result in significant pay increases for those holding senior roles within the public sector. The body has widespread powers to review the pay of senior public sector managers across a range of areas.
According to the review body's website, the following positions come under its ambit: members of the Government, Ministers of State, the Attorney General, the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann; the judiciary; higher management grades in local authorities and the health service executive; the commissioner, deputy commissioner and assistant commissioner in An Garda Síochána; the Comptroller and Auditor General; the chief executives of non-commercial state-sponsored bodies and hospital consultants. Senior members of the defence forces are also included.
About 100 of these roles will be surveyed as part of the evaluation exercise. However, senior Ministers are not to be part of the exercise, the review body explained yesterday. "The individual jobs to be covered in the job evaluation exercise by comparison with private sector jobs have yet to be decided, but it is not proposed to include Ministers or Ministers of State in this exercise," the review body said yesterday. The reason for this exclusion is not clear.
The latest exercise is a version of the benchmarking process which has governed public sector pay in the Republic in recent years. The workload and variety involved in senior public sector roles can be considerable, but the evaluation exercise is also likely to consider the kind of job security public sector roles enjoy.
Previous work done on public sector and private sector roles has looked at the reward mechanisms available in private companies - for instance, bonus schemes and share options. While the latter is not available in public sector employment, there is strong support for the idea of incentivising senior public sector staff.
The evaluation exercise will aim to break down individual roles into their component parts and try to put a monetary value on these elements.
It will also consider the level of responsibility and decision-making involved in the public and private sector roles.
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