A threat to withhold the final phase of pay increases due under benchmarking to about 800 civil servants at the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources has been lifted.

Secretary general of the Department, Brendan Tuohy, has written to the Department of Finance recommending that the benchmarking award and a general pay rise should be awarded as scheduled on June 1st.

In April, Mr Tuohy had said that the pay rises, worth 4-7 per cent, should be withheld until staff complied with his department's strategic action plan.

Mr Tuohy identified two specific measures in the plan that had not yet been delivered by civil servants in his department. In a letter to the Department of Finance, he said that public servants had not completed "role profile" forms for managers. These would detail the exact work functions performed by staff.

He also said that the department had not yet been able to complete performance contracts with non-commercial State-sponsored bodies. These contracts would govern the relationship between bodies such as Sustainable Energy Ireland and the Department of Communications.

This recommendation to withhold the pay rises provoked an angry response from trade unions representing staff, which convened an emergency meeting of the central partnership committee - the body which has overseen implementation of benchmarking within the department.

However, in an update to the Department of Finance dated May 11th, Mr Tuohy wrote that progress on the two specific measures had been made and he was pleased to convey his assessment that payments should be made.

In the letter, seen by The Irish Times, Mr Tuohy wrote: "I am pleased to advise that the return of the role profile forms are now almost complete and we have a timetable in place for completion of those few outstanding. I can also report that we are close to comprehensive sign-off of the performance contracts with the non-commercial State bodies."

Mr Tuohy praised his staff in delivering change and innovation. "As a department, we are fully committed to delivering the modernisation agenda and I wished to ensure that the department's credibility and the credibility of the system was maintained throughout the process. The call to action worked very well and staff have delivered in a credible and verifiable way."