An Irish man is the best paid civil servant in Britain, figures released today show.
A list compiled by the Cabinet Office showed the top earner was Office of Fair Trading chief executive John Fingleton, whose annual package is £279,999 (€329,942), including taxable benefits and allowances.
Mr Fingleton is the former head of Ireland's Competition Authority.
Some 172 civil servants earn more than prime minister David Cameron, whose salary is £142,500 (€167,917). As an MP, Mr Cameron also receives a parliamentary salary.
The publication of the pay and perks of senior civil servants earning more than £150,000 is the first step of a government pledge to remove the “cloak of secrecy” from state information.
Ministers said they hope the openness will help restore public trust in politics and insisted the pay details are “just the start” of a wide-ranging bid to give the public more access.
By September they will also open up the remuneration of senior civil servants earning £58,200 and Mr Cameron has also pledged to force local councils to do the same.
Government contracts over £10,000 will be published on a single website from September with items of central government spending over £25,000 and local government over £500 shortly afterwards.
Most of the 172 salaries had either already been published or unearthed by campaign groups such as the TaxPayers’ Alliance, which publishes an annual Whitehall rich list.
The pressure group welcomed the official release as a “first step” but said further details such as taxpayer-funded pension deals should also be revealed.
Among other top earners on the list were NHS chief executive David Nicholson (up to £259,999) and Joe Harley, the IT director general and chief information officer at the Department for Work and Pensions “£249,999).
The Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup gets up to £244,999 - one of 28 people at the Ministry of Defence paid more than the prime minister.
At their first formal meeting, cabinet members in the new coalition agreed to take a 5 per cent pay cut compared with what their Labour predecessors were earning, and to accept a five-year pay freeze. The government said that over the lifetime of the parliament, the ministerial pay cut and freeze would save approximately £3 million.
Agencies