MINISTER FOR Finance Brian Lenihan refused to be drawn on how the deferred ministerial salaries will impact on the social partnership talks.
He said he was not prepared to be more definitive about the Government’s position because it was important that the negotiations should occur between the relevant parties.
“The Taoiseach has made clear that the matter has been placed on the agenda,’’ he said. “This is as much as I can state at this stage.’’
Mr Lenihan said that the Government had already decided to defer the implementation of the review body increases for ministerial and parliamentary office holders, phasing them in over a period from next September to September 2010.
Mr Lenihan said he recognised the considerable public disquiet surrounding the pay increases. “They were determined based on an exercise of comparison with the private sector,’’ he added.
Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton said that the process of determining ministerial pay rises should be handed over to the system governing the pay increases for TDs, so that they were in the public sector process.
She suggested that determining ministerial pay increases, by comparison with the private sector and its bonus culture, did not make sense.
“Why does the Government not just give up these increases and provide moral leadership and authority on this issue?’’ she said.
“The level of these pay increases is totally unjustified.’’
Mr Lenihan said he agreed that bonuses, characterised by some payments in senior banking positions, were deplorable.
It was a cause of common concern to many European finance ministers that they were occurring in international financial markets.
He said that the review and benchmarking bodies had compared public sector jobs with jobs of equal value in the private sector, but not necessarily senior executives in banks.
“The review body found that the salaries of many senior public service posts – we will leave ministers out of the equation for the moment – were below private sector levels, even when allowance was made for the value of pensions,’’ he added.
Ms Burton said it sounded as if the Cabinet had gone in like a negotiating group with a shop steward at its shoulder and told people that Ministers should get a certain amount.
“The salary increases are unacceptable to most people,’’ she added.
“The increases would be difficult to justify at any time, but they are almost impossible to justify given the economy’s difficult situation.’’
Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton wondered if, in future, the setting of ministerial pay would be a matter for the social partners, continue to be a decision by the Government and an order of the House.
