People struggling with the cost-of-living should not be asked to fund pay increases for top civil servants who are already on huge wages, Paul Murphy has warned.
The People Before Profit TD was speaking as 4000 public servants earning over €150,000 are set to get a pay rise of between 10% and 15%.
Those eligible will include medical consultants, judges, CEOs of State bodies, and senior civil servants – who originally had their wages cut through the Financial Emergency (FEMPI) legislation in the wake of the 2008 financial crash.
Yesterday, Minister Paschal Donohoe updated Cabinet on plans to set up a special review group to make recommendations on top civil servant salaries – warning that the State could see talent poached by higher wages in the private sector.
Cost-of-living
According to Deputy Murphy, the average worker lost €75 a week in wages as a consequence of the cost-of-living crisis.
He slammed the idea that workers who have seen their own wages cut should be “paying for very, very large salary increases for people who are already well paid”.
Deputy Murphy claimed pre-FEMPI wages for some of the commercial Semi-State CEOs were in the region of €500,000 per annum.
"Within our public sector, we should have a spirit of public service," he said.
"We should have an egalitarian approach within the public sector –which doesn't mean that everyone is paid the same –but it does mean we need to have maximum pay caps.
"Personally I'd be in favour of lower pay ceilings than [we have] and I don't think it's right to have these massive pay disparities within the civil service."
Civil servants
Deputy Murphy said it was "never right" for these high-earning employees – such as the CEO of the ESB – to have been receiving over €700,000 per year, including bonuses.
"Ordinary workers in the ESB were on extremely modest salaries," he said.
"The starting salary for people entering the civil service is €24,000 gross ... it wouldn't be right for the government to say we're going to award another big pay increase."
The 4000 public servants who will be entitled to these pay increases are the last group within the sector to see their pre-FEMPI wages restored.
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