Pay for top civil servants should be reviewed, says report
Pay for the country's top civil servants should be reviewed given an ongoing difficulty in attracting talent despite earning €200,000 and more a year, the Public Service Pay Commission has found.
In its latest report, released today, the Commission said it says it is appropriate to conduct a review of remuneration of senior-level posts.
“In undertaking this work, the Review Body could examine how pay, pensions, and other elements of the remuneration package impact on recruitment and retention, and how to attract the best candidates to apply for top-level posts,” the report found.
It has been revealed that the Commission received submissions from various stakeholders, including, on the employer side, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER), which controls the public purse.
In its submission, DPER, headed up by civil servant Robert Watt who acknowledged a continuing difficulty in attracting candidates for certain high-level posts due to constraints on remuneration.
The salaries of some of the country's most senior civil servants are now approaching €200,000 a year after a round of increases recently. The salary for those in the top grade of secretary general now stands at €197,117. Those in that category include Martin Fraser at the Department of the Taoiseach and Robert Watt at the Department of Public Expenditure.
Heads of semi-state organisations can earn far in excess of that with new HSE boss Paul Reid earning €300,000.
The Commission said it noted that, in the opinion of DPER, the current situation has resulted in a policy deficit with pay rates being determined on “an ad hoc basis”, without a consistent and objective policy support structure, in an effort to attract candidates for certain roles.
The Commission said it would support the DPER view that this approach is “neither desirable nor sustainable”.
“It is further noted that remuneration in respect of higher level posts in the public service was historically determined by Government on the recommendations of the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector,” the report concluded.
The Commission also argued for the Review Body on Higher Remuneration to be re-constituted.
“The Commission would consider it appropriate that the Review Body be reconstituted for this purpose, given the complexity and variety of the posts under discussion, as well as the range of issues affecting them. In undertaking this work, the Review Body could examine how pay, pensions, and other elements of the remuneration package impact on recruitment and retention, and how to attract the best candidates to apply for top level posts,” the report found.
Despite their backing the DPER call for a review of salaries, the Commission admitted: “it has not been possible for the Commission to undertake any meaningful analysis of the extent of the difficulties alluded to, or of the causal factors giving rise to those difficulties”.
Suffice it to say, the information available to the Commission indicates that the problems identified are mainly caused by the factors reported by PAS and noted by the Commission in its 2017 Report, it said.
Furthermore, the Commission said it is aware that remuneration for higher grades within the wider public and Civil Service is determined by Government and, in particular, the policy in relation to maximum salary levels.
In the circumstances, the Commission recognises that any change to the current policy in this regard is a matter, in the first instance, for Government.
It is a matter of fact that the pay reductions and caps introduced during the fiscal crisis had a significantly greater impact on the earnings of those at the most senior levels, relative to other grades of public servants.
