INDEPENDENT SENATOR Eoghan Harris is to take a voluntary 10 per cent pay cut amounting to €7,013.40 from his Oireachtas salary of €70,134 in view of the serious economic situation.
"It would be hypocritical for me to go on looking for a pay freeze in the public sector without putting my money where my mouth is," he told The Irish Timesyesterday.
Pointing out that the Government-appointed taskforce to develop an action plan for the public service was reporting shortly, he said: "I expect it to be an anodyne report and I want to have the right to attack it with a clean pair of hands, so to speak."
He would have preferred if the pay cut had been imposed on himself and his colleagues but added: "I am not calling on anyone else to do it."
In his Budget speech last month, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan appealed to senior public servants and those in senior positions in semi-State bodies to consider surrendering one-tenth of their salary.
Those who agreed to take a 10 per cent cut included President Mary McAleese; Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland John Hurley; Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly; CIÉ chairman Dr John Lynch; and chief executive of the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority Pat Neary.