STAFF AT communications regulator ComReg were paid average bonuses of 7 per cent for the financial year ended June 30th, 2011.
The Irish Timeshas learned this performance-related pay was made in spite of the widespread controversy over bonuses paid by public sector bodies and semi-State companies to employees for 2010.
Last week, the Dublin Airport Authority’s chief executive Declan Collier repudiated a €106,000 bonus payment he had been awarded for last year following a row with Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar.
Since then a number of semi-State bosses, including John Mullins at Bord Gáis and Gabriel Darcy of Bord na Móna, have indicated they will not be accepting bonuses.
In relation to ComReg, the bonuses are not paid to its three commissioners – Alex Chisholm, Mike Byrne and John Doherty – who are the most senior executives at the body. Instead, the payments are made to those below commissioner level.
It is not clear how much was paid out by ComReg for its latest financial year.
In the year to the end of June 2009, the regulator paid wages and salaries of €9.2 million to its 119 staff.
Based on this figure, that would indicate bonus payments of about €643,000.
ComReg confirmed yesterday that performance-related pay forms part of the remuneration of its employees.
“Staff in ComReg are employed on individual contracts and part of those contracts includes a variable element of pay based on performance in the year in question.”
It is understood these provisions were approved by the Department of Communications in 1998, when ComReg was being established.
A spokesman for Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte declined to comment on the bonus payments at ComReg.
But he said public bodies and semi-State companies should be “fully cognizant of the economic crisis that the country is facing”.
Earlier this week, Mr Rabbitte had indicated that none of the semi-State companies under his remit would pay bonuses to their chief executives.
To date, the focus on bonus payments has centred largely on chief executives at commercial semi-State companies.
Earlier this week, it emerged that staff at the National Treasury Management Agency were paid €2 million in bonuses for last year.
The focus might now switch to the performance-related pay of lower ranks in the public service.
The Government has yet to indicate its policy in this regard. Sources said this is likely to form part of the reforms that will be brought forward by Minister for Public Sector Reform Brendan Howlin.
Staff at ComReg are among the best paid in the public sector. The 2009 annual report indicates that staff were paid an average €77,260. ComReg employees were exempt from the pay rises granted to civil and public servants under the benchmarking process, but have been subjected to the same pay cuts as other public servants in recent years.
The commissioners earned €563,000 between the three of them.
ComReg regulates the telecommunications and postal industries and collects fees for the use of bandwidth and frequencies.
For years, it was seen as lacking teeth in its efforts to get Eircom to open up its fixed-line network to competitors. It is has had more success in recent times in this regard, with Eircom now pursuing a more collaborative agenda.
