SALARIES AND BENEFITS:THE GOVERNMENT is to review pay scales across the public sector, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has said.
Mr Howlin said some people would be surprised and some would be shocked at the rates of pay and financial packages in the semi-State sector which were set out yesterday in the report of the Review Group on State Assets.
The report stated that chief executives in 10 commercial State companies shared nearly €4.4 million in pay and benefits in 2009.
The chief executive of the ESB received a total package of more than €752,000 in 2009 while those at the Dublin Airport Authority and An Post received more than €500,000 each.
The average earnings for each employee in the Irish Aviation Authority in December 2009 was €95,600. This figure increased to €120,300 when pension contributions were included.
In Eirgrid the average salary per employee in September 2009 stood at €83,400 which increased to €96,900 when pension contributions were taken into account.
In the ESB in December 2009 the average earnings per employee was €75,000. However when pension contributions were included this figure increased to €94,300.
Mr Howlin said that pay rates in the commercial semi-State sector, as in others had “gotten out of kilter”.
“We have shrunk the economy. We have a smaller scale economy and a lot of people are taking great personal hits in their income . . . if we are to have any sense of fairness and solidarity, we have to look at pay rates across the public sector generally.”
The Minister said he had been mandated to bring proposals to Cabinet at an early date on how that could be achieved.
He said the review would not be confined to the semi-State sector.
Mr Howlin added that it was estimated there were about 28 people overall in the State sector paid more than €250,000 per year. He said only nine of these were in commercial semi-State companies.
The report of the Review Group on State Assets recommended that a comparison should be undertaken of pay and conditions in all commercial State companies with those elsewhere in the Irish labour market and in competitor countries.
It said that, in particular, such an exercise should look at the situation in the UK “in order to assure that the cost structures in these companies are competitive with their counterparts. The outcome of this review should determine the approach of economic regulators to costs allowable in tariff determination.”