Top-earning civil servants get 10,000 performance-related bonus

SENIOR civil servants, who earn in excess of 100,000 per annum, are among State employees who have received a generous 10,000 performance-related bonus.

The raise boosted the salary of a deputy secretary to over 131,500.

All told, 213 of the country's best-paid civil servants, policemen and army officers have shared just over 2 million in performance-related awards.

Twelve senior gardaí with the ranks of Deputy Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner, who are paid a basic salary of 114,400 and 98,200 respectively, received 79,000 between them.

In the Defence Forces, 57,000 in performance bonuses was shared out among 11 officers at the ranks of major general and brigadier general.

Based on most up-to-date statistics, major generals were paid a basic wage of 99,000 and brigadier generals 90,300 last year.

The lion's share of the take, 1.9m, was divided among the 190 senior civil servants at assistant secretary and deputy secretary level who were participating in the scheme.

Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy revealed the scale of the bonus payouts in a reply to a written Dáil question by Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton.

The minister's response was based on the Annual Report for 2002 of the Committee for Performance Awards, made up of five top public and private sector executives who were charged with approving the pay-outs and supervising the performance pay scheme's operation.

The average performance related pay-out to the top gardaí amounted to just over 6,500 each. However, in this instance, the awards to the top brass relates to a period of eight months only, as the scheme in their case was introduced in May 2002.

The performance-related scheme was established on foot of recommendations by the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector in a report dated September 2000.

Under the revised scheme, the pool for awards is 10% of the pay bill of the group concerned.