MINISTER FOR Transport Leo Varadkar wanted to pay his special adviser a salary and benefits package worth more than €135,000, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal.
Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin described the pay rate sought as “rather high” and warned that it could “reopen discussions on cases already settled”. A “compromise” of €105,837 was approved, well above the recommended €92,672 cap.
Mr Varadkar’s adviser Brian Murphy was previously the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association’s director of commercial affairs. In April 2011, a wage of €80,051 was sanctioned for Mr Murphy, after Department of Finance guidelines stipulated special advisers should usually be paid at this rate, bringing them into line with the first point of the salary scale applying to standard principal officer positions in the Civil Service.
On May 17th, Mr Varadkar wrote to Mr Howlin outlining Mr Murphy’s total benefit package with the IPHA, which included a car allowance in the form of “annual value of this benefit for benefit-in-kind purposes” and a company contribution to his personal health insurance as well as his salary. The figures were deleted in the Freedom of Information documents on the grounds that they contained personal information relating to previous pay.
However, an email exchange dated May 23rd between civil servants was released unredacted and it included this reference: “The salary sanctioned for Mr Murphy back in April was for €80,051. The salary now requested is €135,218. Do you know anything about this.”
Civil Service advice provided to Mr Howlin said Mr Varadkar’s request for a salary of €105,837 with “additional requests” added to the benefit package represented “a reopening of negotiations and if conceded there could be pressure to reopen other cases”.
