Semi-state salaries - Executives’ pay beyondour means
Finance Minister Brian Lenihan promised last December that he would bring proposals to Cabinet to review pay arrangements for chief executives of semi-state companies “at an early date.” The promise was made in the midst of mounting anger over the mandatory 5% cut to the pay of the lowest-ranking civil servants, while the salaries of those in the highest-paid ranks of the semi-state sector were being left untouched.
The chief executives of the semi-state bodies were exempted from the public service pay-cuts, along with their estimated 42,000 workers, because those companies are supposed to operate on a commercial basis without Government interference. Their salaries are effectively funded through the company’s commercial basis and, therefore, supposedly do not have a direct impact on the public service pay bill.