Lenihan to review top semi-State pay

MINISTER FOR Finance Brian Lenihan will bring proposals to Government “very shortly” to review pay levels for the chief executives of semi-State companies.

Minister of State for Enterprise John Moloney said that while these companies “must be allowed to act commercially, the Government is of the view that they should be subject to pay restraint in order to fulfil long-term national interest, namely ensuring competitive pricing of energy and other goods”.

Speaking on behalf of Mr Lenihan, Mr Moloney said “the Minister indicated he was concerned about pay at top levels across the economy and he would bring proposals to government to review the arrangements governing the pay of chief executives of the commercial state-sponsored bodies”. He was responding to Government backbencher Michael McGrath (FF Cork South Central) who called for intervention in what he called the “grossly excessive” remuneration packages of the bosses of semi-State bodies.

Mr McGrath said “the ceo of An Post had an overall package of €523,000 reduced in 2008 to €493,000. The ceo of the ESB in 2007 had an overall package of €654,000 reduced in 2008 to €535,000. The ceo of Coillte in 2008 had a package of €489,000 including bonus payment of €74,000 reduced in 2009 to €414,000.”

He said there was a “distinct lack of consistency. Mr McGrath could not understand how somebody “responsible for running three State airports, albeit a very important job, could be paid a package of up to €700,000 and the person running the IDA . . . is only paid €200,000”.