Irish Examiner View: Hopes for public-sector pay deal fading early

Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath faces a tough task in the face of public-sector pay demands. Picture: Sam Boal /Rollingnews.ie

In the face of news that the wage packets of Ireland’s top executives last year jumped to almost double pre-Covid levels, the task ahead of Michael McGrath, the public expenditure minister, in trying to sort out public-sector pay claims just got more difficult.

This week the main teachers’ unions outlined their compelling case for pay increases, while commissioned officers in the Irish military voted overwhelmingly to seek proper representation at the national pay talks, which begin shortly. It is only the start of a process that will challenge Mr McGrath and his Government colleagues exhaustively.

The rhetoric is being ramped up and hammered home, with teachers’ unions being told by their executive officers that their members are now the working poor and being forced to use food banks, while the country’s commissioned officers maintain they are marginalised and being excluded from a fair process.

Mr McGrath yesterday discovered that the median remuneration of bosses at eight of the top 10 companies listed on the Iseq index rose by 66% in 2021 to €4.75m, which was almost double the €2.42m the same median recorded in 2019.

One standout figure that emerged yesterday was the €13.9m earned by the chief executive of building materials giant CRH, Albert Manifold, last year. This was up 24% on his earnings the previous year. It has since emerged that Mr Manifold’s wage bill was 289 times the median pay of €48,200 earned by the average CRH worker in the UK.

As the cost of living hammers ordinary households, Iseq companies can expect pushback on executive pay policies at forthcoming AGMs. It may be a precursor to wider discontent when Mr McGrath and his colleagues talk terms on the next public-sector pay deal.

Under the current deal, public servants are due a 1% pay increase in October anyway, but even that might be subject to a review as the unions recently triggered a clause in the current agreement that allows for a review if circumstances change radically. 

Runaway inflation has done just that.

The existing deal between the Government and the unions runs until the end of the year, and this month both the unions and the Department of Public Expenditure expressed the opinion that negotiations could be completed by the summer. 

Just a few short weeks later, and that prospect seems optimistic at best.