Top civilservants on €200,000 a year after latest hikes

THE salaries of some of the country’s most senior civil servants are approaching €200,000 a year after a round of increases that kicked in at the weekend.

Secretaries general of Government departments are eligible for pay rises of at least €4,000 as of April 1 as part of the wider pay restoration process in the civil service.

The salary for those in the top grade of secretary general now stands at €197,117.

That is an increase of €4,884 since January.

Those in that category include Martin Fraser at the Department of the Taoiseach and Robert Watt at the Department of Public Expenditure.

The bosses of 10 more Government departments who are in the grade II pay scale for the posts have seen their salaries go up €4,550 to €187,350.

Meanwhile, the annual salaries of secretaries general in the grade III category rose €4,234 to €177,567.

The details of the salary increases are contained in a circular sent out by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

The rises have been scheduled to restore pay that was cut under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Fempi) Act.

The pay restoration is being rolled out in three phases, with the last of these taking place on April 1, 2019.

The pay on offer to some of the State’s top mandarins exceeds the salary taken by the Taoiseach.

It’s understood that Leo Varadkar’s pay is closer to €185,000 as he, along with his ministers, has been waiving the salary increases due to office holders.

Dáil members will see their salaries rise to around €94,500 by the end of the year once another planned hike comes in at the start of October.

That amounts to a salary boost of more than €4,500 since the start of the year.

The Irish Independent has previously reported how some TDs, including Fine Gael’s Noel Rock, waived the increases.

Others such as Pat Casey of Fianna Fáil, said he would be giving the pay increase to charity as he did last year.