Radical rethink on public sector pay is necessary

It’s time to consider the Dutch system of linking earnings to the salary of the country’s prime minister, writes Philip Ryan

MATTHIJS van Nieuwkerk is the host of the popular Dutch television show De Wereld Draait Door. The chat show, which roughly translates as

The World Keeps Turning, airs every day at 7pm on Holland’s national broadcaster NPO1. It’s a hugely popular programme and Van Nieuwkerk could easily be described as the

Dutch Gay Byrne.

And, like Gay Byrne in his prime, Van Nieuwkerk is very well paid by the national broadcaster. His current salary is €363,000 per year for his hourly weekday current affairs and light entertainment show. But all that is set to change next year due to a Dutch public pay policy known as the Balkenende norm.

The policy, named after former Dutch prime minister Jan Pieter Balkenende, insists that no public sector worker — be it a hospital consultant or a television personality — should earn more than the leader of the country.

Next year, after a 10-year bedding-in period, no one paid by the public purse will be allowed earn more than around €200,000 per year.

This poses a dilemma for

Van Nieuwkerk who will see his salary significantly reduced. Does he stay hosting his muchloved show on the national broadcaster or leave for a private network where he will earn far more?

The national broadcaster can’t offer him any more so its hands are tied. There is no public outcry to keep him at the station as the country has come to accept that these are the rules.

Not unlike working in the Irish public sector, there are the usual benefits around security and pension entitlements in the Dutch public sector.

People will undoubtedly miss him should he decide to leave but, like the name of his show, the world keeps turning.

Something similar happened in Ireland when Pat Kenny decided to make his big-money move to Newstalk.

Lured away from RTE with an attractive package and an advertising campaign urging people to “turn the dial”, Kenny moved to the privately owned station in 2013.

But not that many people turned the dial. The latest

JNLR listenership figures show Kenny’s show on Newstalk has 142,000 listeners while his replacement in his old slot on RTE, Today with Sean O’Rourke, has 315,000.

The world keeps turning. After announcing swingeing budget cuts, RTE director general Dee Forbes insisted her celebrity broadcasters are worth more than the Taoiseach’s current salary of €207,590 per year.

Forbes argued that the likes of Ryan Tubridy (€495,000), Ray D’Arcy (€450,000) and Joe

Duffy (€389,988) are worth every penny because they work in “very, very pressurised environments”.

Perhaps then we should have sent Ray D’Arcy to negotiate Brexit with Boris Johnson or maybe Joe Duffy should have been asked to tender for the National Broadband Plan on Liveline. At the end of the show, the public could have chosen the preferred bidder for the rural broadband plan via a Liveline opinion poll.

Marian Finucane (€300,617) could be seconded to the Department of Housing to resolve the homelessness crisis while Sean O’Rourke (€308,964) could be installed as HSE director general so the country can finally get to grips with the appalling overcrowding problem in the country’s hospitals.

They certainly have opinions on all of the above and are also as well qualified as the ministers currently handling the portfolios.

There is a natural reluctance among ministers to consider or even explore the possibility of capping public sector pay to the Taoiseach’s salary. It would be a radical move and have consequences far beyond the RTE studios in Montrose.

Hospital consultants, for instance, already bemoan the salaries they receive for their public work while continuing to top up their pay packets from their private practices.

There are also many senior civil servants and semi-state bosses who earn far more than the Taoiseach.

But when it comes to the crunch, they can hide behind their political masters and are not faced with a public vote every five years.

Linking the top rate of public sector pay to the Taoiseach’s salary would not impact on the vast majority of people who work in the public sector as most will never reach this salary level.

There are not many who would argue that €200,000 is not a very handsome salary —with enough years of service, it would result in a €100,000-a-year pension payment on retirement.

Now many RTE stars are on contracts so they don’t enjoy the full benefits of a public service job, but you can be sure they have a private pension of some description.

The Balkenende Norm may seems like a radical plan but the Government was able to implement a cap on senior banker pay and, last time I checked, we can still get money out of the ATMs.

‘Perhaps we should have sent Ray D’Arcy to negotiate Brexit’