HOWLIN PRESS CONFERENCE:THE GOVERNMENT will launch an early review of pay levels in the semi-State sector, especially at the highest levels, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has said.
Mr Howlin said some people would be “surprised and shocked” at some salary rates in semi-State companies identified by the McCarthy report, published yesterday.
He said he had been mandated by the Cabinet to review pay rates across the public sector generally.
He said there were 28 people in the public sector, not all in State companies, still earning more than €250,000 per annum. He emphasised that the review would begin almost immediately, saying he would not put the McCarthy report’s findings in this regard “on the long finger”.
“We have a smaller-scale economy and a lot of people taking great hits in their income. If we have any sense of fairness and solidarity we have to look at pay rates across the public sector generally,” he said.
The McCarthy Report showed very high annual remuneration packages for chief executives of semi-State companies, including €752,000 for ESB chief Pádraig McManus in 2009; €698,000 for Dublin Airport Authority chief Declan Collier in 2007; and €523,000 for An Post chief Donal Connell in 2007.
Mr Howlin also said the Government was sending out a clear message that nobody should expect bonuses in future. He was referring to the €3 million package paid to former AIB managing director Colm Doherty in 2010. Mr Howlin said the Government disapproved of the deal.
He criticised the board saying it had not acted in the public interest, but he refused, under persistent questioning, to individually criticise former Labour leader Dick Spring, who is one of the public interest directors.
Mr Howlin was speaking after the publication of the report which has identified State assets and companies with a book value of €5 billion that can be disposed of.
He said he would put each of the 55 recommendations to the departments and take decisions as soon as possible on how to implement them. He said the Government had given a commitment to dispose of up to €2 billion in assets, but the McCarthy report had warned against “fire sales”, and market conditions needed to be taken into account.
However, he reconfirmed the Government’s commitment to the €2 billion assets disposal plan.
