Wages for top judges and doctors will rise by more than €20,000 annually next month

Top judges’ and doctors’ wages will rise by more than €20,000 annually next month after recession-era public pay cuts are reversed.

The wages of the Chief Justice will rise to the pre-recession level of €295,916, according to official figures – a restoration worth €24,268, or 8.9 per cent. Supreme Court judges will see their wage packets rise by €21,147 to €257,872, while High Court judges will see a similar rise of €19,936 to €243,080.

Meanwhile, at the maximum point of the pay scale, the best paid public consultants will have their wages climb €22,972 to their restored level of €252,150. These consultants were hired before 2012 and are on a ‘Type A’ contract, requiring full public patient commitment.

Those hired before 2012 on ‘Type B’ contracts, who can undertake some private practice, will see an increase of €21,057 to €231,138. ‘Type C’ contract holders, who can engage in on-site and off-site private practice, will see the pay for their public work rise by €10,852 to €183,859.

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In the third level sector, the head of a level one university will see a 9 per cent increase, taking home €235,594, almost €20,000 more annually. Heads of technological universities are in line for a 9 per cent rise to €222,911.

The Government examined whether it was legally possible to stall the increases, but advice from the Attorney General precluded them from introducing legislation to prevent the restoration from going ahead.

It is understood that some of the top earning civil and public servants in the State – including Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt, and HSE chief executive Paul Reid – will not receive any restoration as they do not qualify because their salaries were set after the recession-era FEMPI (Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) cuts.

Sinn Féin, who voted for the legislation underpinning the pay restoration in 2017, accused the then-government led by Fine Gael of adding the provision at the eleventh hour. Louise O’Reilly, the party’s enterprise spokeswoman, said the purpose of the Bill was to underline and give legislative backing to the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA).

“The substance and intention of the bulk of [the legislation] was to give a legislative underpinning to the PSSA but what was added to it by Government was the facility for pay restoration for top earners.”

“The addition of this as a small part of a major piece of legislation, it goes right against the spirit of the legislation,” she said, rounding on the Coalition for holding off on an emergency budget and calling on Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath to publish the Attorney General’s advice on higher levels of pay restoration.

Speaking privately, senior officials said on Wednesday that there was a widespread view in the upper echelons of the civil service that the legislation was always vulnerable to a legal challenge, potentially leading to claims on wages that had been cut.

On a visit to London where he was meeting business leaders at an event hosted by public affairs company Powerscourt, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said: “I appreciate that it’s a difficult case to make at a time in which there’s such pressure on living standards but it is part of the legal obligations that we have in particular to many public servants within our health service that play a really important role.”

Elsewhere, there was hope that public pay talks could resume before the weekend, after indications that the Government is preparing to approach the Workplace Relations Commission.

[ Growing hope public pay talks may soon resume ]

Sources on the union side of negotiations, who walked away from a deal offering 5 per cent pay increases on top of what was already in an existing agreement, said they now expect a resumption.