FORMER CHIEF executive of the National Treasury Management Agency Michael Somers has revealed he was paid just over €1 million for 2008, confirming the widely held belief he was the highest-paid public servant in the State.
Details of his pay at the NTMA – which manages the Government’s debts – were a closely guarded secret but a ruling by the Information Commissioner was going to lead to the Department of Finance releasing the information. He had eight weeks to appeal but said he had no intention of trying to block the move by applying to the High Court before the deadline passed this week.
Dr Somers, who retired last year, refused to disclose details of his pay and those of his staff over the 19 years he ran the agency. In an interview with The Irish Timesto be published tomorrow, he said he was paid a salary of €576,000 for 2008 and a performance-related bonus of €403,000. He said he also received a fee of more than €30,000 as a commissioner of the National Pension Reserve Fund, one of the State bodies run by the NTMA.
Under his contract, he was entitled to a yearly performance bonus of up to 80 per cent of his salary.
His pay amounted to more than three times the Taoiseach’s 2008 salary and more than four times that of a Minister.
He revealed his pay in advance of the department disclosing the information to the Sunday Timesfollowing a Freedom of Information request. Dr Somers had challenged the decision and the NTMA's lawyers, Arthur Cox, failed in an appeal to the Information Commissioner.
Dr Somers said his pay was set by the NTMA remuneration and advisory committees – judged against similar pay levels in the private sector – and signed off by successive ministers for finance. The NTMA was set up outside Civil Service pay rates in 1990 by then finance minister Albert Reynolds as it would have to “pay up” to get the right people, he said.
The disclosure of Dr Somers’s pay is likely to increase pressure on his successor, John Corrigan, to reveal his own remuneration.