The salary of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is to rise to close to €250,000, following a decision by the Cabinet yesterday to approve a pay increase of 7.5 per cent for Ministers, and senior civil and public servants.
However, the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Service, which recommended the increases, has signalled that in future it will take generous public service pensions into account in assessing top level pay.
The review body report, to be published later this week, maintains that "the relevance of superannuation as a component of overall remuneration has assumed greater importance" than at the time of its last analysis of pay in the top level of the public service five years ago.
The Review Body said that it would be investigating this issue further in its final report due in 2007.
It said that it would consider "the extent the value of public service superannuation arrangements should be offset against remuneration packages available in the private sector".
Government sources told The Irish Times last night that the issue of the value of pensions provided to hundreds of thousands of workers in the State sector could also be considered by the benchmarking body in its next analysis of pay in the wider public service which is also due in 2007.
The new pay rises, which were approved at a meeting of the Cabinet yesterday, will be paid on a phased basis with half being implemented now and the remainder in January.
Those who will benefit from the rises are: 40 public office holders, 1,900 hospital consultants, 500 senior academics in third level institutions, 315 local authority and health service managers, 215 senior civil servants, 65 chief executives of non-commercial semi-State companies and 23 top Garda and Army officers.
Yesterday, the Taoiseach defended the pay increase, highlighting the fact that the recommendation came from an independent body for posts not covered by the benchmarking process.
He also said the pay rises were less than the average pay awards under benchmarking.
Department of Finance sources last night highlighted that principal officers in the public services - the grade linked with TDs - had received increases of over 11 per cent under benchmarking.
Mr Ahern receives a salary of €237,178 a year at present, made up of €87,247 TD's salary and the remaining €150,178, office holder's salary. The TD salary is not covered by the proposed pay rise.
The latter part of the salary is covered by the new rise, which will see Mr Ahern's salary rise by just under €12,000 to nearly €250,000. Cabinet Ministers' salaries will rise from €187,507 to up to €197,000.
Department of Finance sources said the top level pay review had initially been due to take place in 2004 but that this had been deferred to 2007. However, last April the Government asked the review body to carry out an interim assessment as otherwise it would have been seven years since the previous review.
The review group was headed by the chairman of the C&C Group, Tony O'Brien.
The awards are less than the amounts sought by some of the groups covered by the review. Local authority managers had sought rises of between 10 and 12 per cent while hospital consultants looked for more than 20 per cent.
Mr Ahern yesterday said the people covered in the latest review did not receive benchmarking awards. "This was an independent process done separately and I've no problem with that," he said.
The Taoiseach and other elected politicians have enjoyed a set of pay rises since 1997 which has seen his salary nearly double since he took office.