Proposals for an 18 per cent pay rise for the Lord Mayor of Dublin are to be put before Dublin City Council tonight.
The increase, which will bring the lord mayor's personal allowance from €53,500 to €63,000 annually, has been included in the council's budget for 2006 but requires the approval of city councillors.
If approved, the increase of €9,500 would automatically be granted to the current lord mayor, Catherine Byrne, who took up office last summer, and is likely to remain at the same rate for her successor.
The allowance takes into account the fact that, unlike city councillors, the lord mayor is not in a position to remain in any other employment during the term of office and generally takes a career break on moving into the Mansion House.
The allowance has not been reviewed since April 2003 and in his report to the councillors, executive manager Kevin Dowling said an increase was required.
"It is now considered that an increase in this allowance is justified and I recommend that it be increased in line with pay increases in the public sector since October 2002."
While most councillors are understood to be in favour of the increase, the Sinn Féin group said its size could not be justified.
"We feel it's a rather substantial sum at a time when ordinary workers are facing rises in bus fares, Luas fares, electricity bills, gas bills and the rest," Sinn Féin group leader Cllr Christy Burke said. "It's nothing personally against the lord mayor, but at a time when everybody else is taking hits, it seems a bit much."
Ms Byrne said yesterday that she had no influence in setting the new allowance.
"It's in line with inflation, that's why it has been upped; it's nothing to do with me personally as lord mayor."
