Judges' pay rises, worth up to nearly €40,000 in some cases, recommended by the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Service, are to be cleared shortly by the Cabinet, it has emerged. Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent, reports.
Last week, Minister for Finance Brian Cowen approved the 11.6 per cent increase in the pay of the Comptroller and Auditor General John Purcell, bringing his salary to €270,000 a year. Under the law, statutory orders must be signed by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern if Cabinet Ministers and Ministers of State are to get their controversial awards, as recommended by the pay body.
Brian Lenihan, Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, is required to bring a statutory order to the Cabinet before the judges' pay increases can begin, backdated to mid-September.
In the review body's report, the salary of the Chief Justice, Mr Justice John Murray, will rise by 15.6 per cent to €310,000 - just €1,000 below the pay recommended for the Taoiseach.
The other judges serving on the Supreme Court alongside Mr Justice Murray will get a €37,000 increase, bringing their pay to €270,000, while High Court judges will rise by €35,000 to €255,000 a year .
The pay rises to the other people covered by the review body do not require ministerial order and are in the process of being sanctioned by Department of Finance officials.
So far, there is no clear signal yet from the Government whether it will row back on its earlier decision to accept higher pay for Ministers and Ministers of State.
Mr Ahern is said by some to be more concerned about the reaction of trade union leaders who will be involved in next February's social partnership talks, than any negative media or public reaction.
However, the general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, David Begg, said the Government would "have no credibility" if they came out now and refused the increases.
"Nobody would believe that they wouldn't in the longer term come back and back date the awards once the hue-and-cry about all of this had died down," he told The Irish Times yesterday.
The Government, he said, "couldn't unring the bell", particularly after Mr Cowen had warned unions that they must restrain demands for higher pay.
The background to the Taoiseach and Mr Cowen's decision to lay such stress on the fact that the order required to start the pay increases has not yet been signed, remains unclear.
Some Ministers believe that public sector unions will be wary about calling on them to refuse to accept an award of an independent pay body, for fear of creating a precedent.
Mr Begg said the trade union attitude to the pay increases awarded to top-level public officials, including Ministers, had been consistently misrepresented.
The "key message" that unions wanted to highlight, he said, was that pay levels in the private sector between top-flight executives and rank-and-file staff had widened sharply in recent years.
Mr Begg will be one of the key figures in next year's round of social partnership negotiations.