Government cannot justify pay restoration delay for high earners, Varadkar says

EMBARGOED TO 0001 MONDAY MAY 30 File photo dated 20/03/22 of Tanaiste Leo Varadkar who has said people who argued years before that new hotels should not be built in Dublin were “wrong”, and that more hotels are needed around the country. Issue date: Monday May 30, 2022.

The Government cannot justify delaying the restoration of pre-austerity wage rates for thousands of Ireland’s highest paid public servants, the Tanaiste has insisted.

Leo Varadkar said he realised the move would prove controversial amid the cost-of-living crisis, but he said legal advice received by ministers was “very clear” that an intervention would be hard to defend in the courts.