Ceann Comhairle salary higher than every other politician, except the President

The Oireachtas has said that any Leinster House office holder may have chosen to waive some salary or allowance

The Oireachtas said that salary levels for such jobs were set by the Department of Public Expenditure and that the Ceann Comhairle, currently Seán Ó Fearghaíl (pictured), had no role in the setting of the pay scales concerned. File picture: Maxwells

Pay restoration after a series of salary cuts has created an anomaly where the post of Ceann Comhairle is now officially at least the second best-paid political role in the State after the President.

The Department of Public Expenditure has confirmed that the salary officially set for the Dáil speaker job is now €227,000, more than €10,000 higher than that of the Taoiseach. It also exceeds the Tánaiste’s salary by over €27,000 and the wages of a government minister by more than €43,000, department figures show.