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185 more public staff earn over €150,000

An extra 185 public servants are earning in excess of €150,000 per annum since the start of the year, despite the crackdown on public service pay by the Government.

Figures published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform show a total of 2,721 public servants enjoyed salaries of between €150,000 and €200,000 in February. They account for almost 1% of all staff in the public service.

The figure is an increase of 185 on the number of high-earning public servants at the end of 2011 when 2,536 staff were in the same pay category.

A spokesperson for Brendan Howlin, the public expenditure minister, said yesterday the additional 185 staff were explained by an increase in the number of hospital consultants.

It is believed the increase is linked to the anomaly whereby up to 450 consultants were entitled to take their last year off on full pay in lieu of overtime, yet could act as their own lo-cum for that year, effectively earning a double salary.

The figures also show the number of people employed in local authorities rose by more than 400 to almost 29,000 between the first and second quarters of 2012, despite the general embargo on new recruitment in the public service.

There are the equivalent of 292,000 full-time workers employed in the public service.

In reply to a parliamentary question from Labour TD Joanna Tuffy, Mr Howlin said the overall number of people employed in the public service had fallen by 28,000 since a peak in 2008 of more than 320,000 staff. It is the lowest number of people employed in the public service since 2005.

He said the figures highlighted how the average salary of public servants had fallen from €60,000 in 2008 to €54,000.

Mr Howlin admitted that 20 public servant as well as 93 academics remain on salaries in excess of €200,000, despite the introduction of a pay ceiling of €200,000 for all new entrants in Jun 2011.

The figures show public servants earning in excess of €150,000 have seen an average reduction of €16,325 taken off their salary as a result of the pension levy.

About 5,808 public servants enjoy annual salaries in excess of €100,000, although the number earning this level of pay has fallen by almost 1,000 since the start of the year.

Half of all workers in the public service earn salaries between €30,000 and €50,000, while almost 18% of public servants earn less than €30,000.

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