Ministers will not take €12,000 raise due under pay deal

The Government will confirm next week that it will not take the proposed increases in salary due as part of the restoration of public service pay cuts.

Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald highlighted the rises due in the row-back on pay cuts with €5,000 going to the Taoiseach in each of the three years from 2017.

Cabinet Ministers would receive €4,000 a year for the next three years and TDs €5,000 over the next two years.

Ms McDonald compared these pay increases to the €5 a week for pensioners and other social welfare recipients, while unemployed people between 18 and 24 would only receive €2.70 a week.

She called for the Government to “put a stop” to the pay increase for politicians rather than deferring it.

Minister for Education Richard Bruton said the Government would confirm next week that Ministers would not take the proposed increases. Mr Bruton said the Government would “show leadership” on the issue.

However, Ms McDonald said a voluntary agreement by Ministers not to take the pay increase was insufficient. She said the Government must put a permanent stop to the wage increases. If not she warned, her party would take action either through amendments to existing legislation or through a new Bill.

‘Crocodile tears’

Mr Bruton accused Ms McDonald of “shedding crocodile tears” and said Sinn Féin opposed the Fempi (Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) which he said cut to the Taoiseach’s salary by 41 per cent when “people on lowest salaries didn’t receive any cuts”.

He said the Government did not take any pay increases during the financial crisis. “We’ve also curbed expenses, done away with State cars” and made other efficiencies which would continue, Mr Bruton added.

Earlier, the Department of Public Expenditure said Ministers would not take the €12,000 pay rises due under the terms of the Haddington Road Agreement, which gives pay rises to all public sector workers.

The last government took a decision that all senior and junior ministers would not take these pay rises

A spokeswoman for Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe said he would bring a memo to Cabinet soon to reaffirm this decision. The first restoration of pay for is due in April, with another increase following in January 2018.

TDs are in line for a pay rise of €2,700 next year and again in 2018 which drew controversy after the budget given welfare benefits including the dole, pensions and the carers’ and disability allowances are going up by a fiver, but not before March 1sts.

Mr Donohoe on Wednesday defended the salary increases for politicians.

"Everything is now tied in to how we treat public and civil servants. There's the issue in relation to Ministerial salaries that we will revisit because I don't want to be in a situation where people feel in the future that there's any kind of unfairness going on," he told RTÉ's Today with Seán O'Rourke.