Pay increases ‘to cost taxpayers €3bn’
For the same amount of money, the Government could cut the standard rate of income tax from 20% to 18.5%, or reduce the VAT rate from 21% to 19%.
The recommended average salary rise of 9% for the 260,000 public sector workers at a cost of 1 billion under the benchmarking process is entirely unwarranted, according to Colin Hunt, director of research at Goodbody Stockbrokers.
