Civil servants claim €100m in expenses and overtime
Some staff in Government departments used overtime to boost their pay packets by up to €50,000 each - almost double the average annual salary in the private sector.
An analysis of figures provided to the Irish Examiner revealed the State paid out €53m to civil servants during the year on travel expenses.
A further €45m went on overtime to employees of the 15 government departments and selected other agencies.
The total payments work out at an average of around €1,600 in overtime per staff member, but this increases to more than €3,500 per staff member when travel- related expenses are added to the bill.
The figures also showed individual payments of up to €50,000 for overtime.
One civil servant from the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources picked up €49,000 on top of the annual salary, while individual staff in Agriculture, Justice and Education also bumped up their pay packets by more than €40,000 for work outside normal office hours. One individual in the Revenue Commissioners collected €30,000.
Around €22m of the €100m overall bill went to Department of Agriculture staff. These payments broke down into €9m on overtime and €13m on travel and subsistence expenses.
Staff in the Revenue Commissioners took home €9m in overtime and ran up an additional bill of €5m for travel-related expenses.
A total of 2,000 staff across all departments claimed more than €6,350 each in overtime payments.
The figures also revealed additional payments of more than €20m in shift and roster allowances, rewards for so-called “higher, special or additional duties” and other handouts that were classified as “miscellaneous”.
Civil servants can claim up to €1.24 per mile if they use their cars to travel on work-related business.
This means someone travelling from Dublin to Cork on official business could pocket almost €400 in mileage expenses alone. A return train ticket between the two cities, on the other hand, costs around €56.
The Department of Finance said in a memo earlier this year that heads of each Government department should “continue to ensure that only essential travel is undertaken and that the number of officers on any official journey is kept to the absolute minimum”.
