THE TAOISEACH may have capped his salary at €200,000 but there are still 28 people in the public service who are earning more than €250,000 a year, according to official figures.
In addition, an unspecified number of “academic consultants” working for the HSE earn more than €250,000 a year, even though many of these have other sources of earnings.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan now says he plans to examine how top earners’ salaries can be reduced to reflect the Government’s policy of pay restraint, despite the contractual issues that apply.
The 28 top earners include nine employees of commercial State companies, one paid by the Oireachtas, five staff of non-commercial State agencies, four people in the education sector and nine judges.
The group includes the President, Mary McAleese, the Chief Justice and High Court judges, and the chief executive of the HSE and the National Roads Authority.
Nobody employed in the Civil Service or local authorities earns more than €250,000 a year, Mr Noonan told Michael McGrath of Fianna Fáil in answer to a parliamentary question.
Some 168 academic consultants work for the HSE, of which a “certain number” of academic consultants at professorial level receive more than €250,000 a year.
No details are available in relation to the Central Bank and the National Treasury Management Agency, where some staff are believed to earn more than this amount.