TOP-PAID public servants escaped the full wage cuts imposed on their lower-paid colleagues after lobbying the finance minister and claiming the loss of their bonus payments should be taken into account.

Green Party Chairman Dan Boyle says the u-turn on the paycut for higher-paid civil servants, announced earlier this year, sent out a very bad signal.

TÁNAISTE Mary Coughlan has been accused of being “unfit” for her job and having “lost the plot” after a series of controversial remarks made in a television interview broadcast around the world.