Top earning academics reject pay cut request

The country’s highest-earning academics have snubbed a request by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn to take a voluntary pay cut to benefit the State.

Last July, Mr Quinn wrote to the chairpersons of the university governing bodies, asking them to ask people who earned above the Government’s public pay sector ceiling of €200,000, other than academic medical consultants, to make voluntary waivers of salary.

Ninety-nine people in the higher education sector receive over €200,000 in salary per annum, including two who earn over €250,000. However, 89 are academic-based consultants and their remuneration falls under the remit of the health minister.