Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday defended his €38,000 pay increase and said it was based on an independent assessment. Mr Ahern said this was the first independent review of pay for higher public servants in seven years.
He said the Review Body on Higher Remuneration had benchmarked pay for top public servants against the private sector. "As far as the Government is concerned, that is it. We are going to implement the report," he said.
"Politicians are 5 per cent of that overall review," he said. He added that the increases granted in the last such review of top-level pay "were not of a very high nature".
He also rejected criticism from the Opposition that his new salary of €310,000 would see him earn more than US president George Bush or British prime minister Gordon Brown. "I'm glad I don't own Chequers [ the country house of the British prime minister] or don't have Number 10 or the Élysée Palace.
"If you want to build those in then you know what the figures would be. I certainly don't want the White House. There is no comparison and I think people know that," he said.
Mr Ahern said it was sensible that Ministers will only receive pay increases under the review body and will not be eligible for additional rises under the benchmarking process as they had been in the past. Meanwhile, business organisation Isme criticised the pay awards recommended by the review body and said it sent out the wrong message when the unsheltered part of the economy was fighting to control costs to protect weakening competitiveness.
Isme chief executive Mark Fielding said a "do as I say, not as I do" approach had applied, "as senior Ministers and public servants who are constantly warning about the impact of a high wage economy are set to reward themselves with substantial pay hikes, well in excess of inflation".
However, speaking to The Irish Times prior to opening the Annual Douglas Hyde School in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, the Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen said the people for whom pay increases had been recommended by the review body had a responsibility for a €55 billion economy. The Tánaiste said the review body is independent of politicians and civil servants and noted that some senior civil servants were not to receive any increase.