Public servants' average earnings increased by 5.5 per cent in the year to June, with local authority and city council workers experiencing the biggest pay rises.

Average weekly public sector earnings, excluding those in the health sector, were €838.32 in the period, according to figures released yesterday by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). This compares with €794.26 at the end of June 2004.

Those working in regional bodies such as local authorities and councils saw their average weekly earnings increase to €720.92 in the period from €666.64 a year earlier.

While the average pay received by Garda officers fell 3.7 per cent in the period, they still remain the second-highest paid of all public sector workers behind prison officers, according to the CSO figures.

The number of people employed in the public sector increased by 8,400 to 350,100. Excluding the health service, 249,200 were employed in the public sector.

The number employed in education increased by 5 per cent to 91,100, while employment in the health sector rose by 3.3 per cent to 100,900. The number employed in the semi-state sector fell 1.4 per cent to 57,300.

Mark Fielding, chief executive of business group Isme, likened the high levels of public sector pay to a noose around the neck of the exchequer that was strangling public finances. He said the figures put pay to the lie voiced by public sector unions that their wages had fallen behind.

The average wage in the public sector was now €43,593, Mr Fielding said, 45 per cent more than the average industrial wage and 95 per cent ahead of the average wage in the small and medium enterprise sector.