The Department of Finance has defended the decision to leave untouched in the Budget the system of increments for public sector workers.
A spokesman for Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said stopping the annual payments, understood to be worth about €230 million a year, would be unfair to more junior members of the public service.
“Preventing increments is not a fair treatment of all public servants because it would adversely affect the more junior officials,” the spokesman said.
