Any pay-scale comparison with the private sector would have given the Taoiseach a salary of at least €600,000, Bertie Ahern told the Dáil yesterday.
Meanwhile Minister for Finance Brian Cowen defended the pay raises, and said not accepting the pay recommendations would "create more anomalies than those we seek to eliminate".
As questions about pay increases were again raised as the House returned after the Christmas recess, Mr Ahern said public service posts were compared with posts in the private sector with comparable levels of duties and responsibilities, and increases varied from 36 per cent for the manager of Dublin City Council to 5.5 per cent for assistant secretaries and university professors.
He told Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny the review body believed it inappropriate to compare Ministers' salaries with the private sector; that those of senior public servants were a more relevant comparator.
Mr Ahern said any comparison with even the "lowest quartile" of the private sector "would have put my salary at €600,000 - not that I needed that, I can tell you. They didn't do that, and I wouldn't have taken it."
He said the only comment the pay body made in connection with the Taoiseach's salary was that it "should not be more or less" than that of the Chief Justice.
The Taoiseach added that the last review was 10 years ago, and the next review would probably be in 2011. "It will not be a matter of concern for me then."
Earlier, during finance questions, Mr Cowen defended the pay mechanisms system.
Kieran O'Donnell (FG, Limerick East) said the Tánaiste "is getting an increase of €36,500, which is higher than the average industrial wage".
"The Taoiseach, who now gets €310,000, has the highest salary of any leader in the democratic world. He got an increase in excess of €38,000, making his salary almost 10 times the average industrial wage."
He questioned how the Government could call for pay restraint and justify their own increases.
Mr Cowen said: "Pay determination mechanisms are in place. They represent the established procedures by which these matters are addressed.
"What has not been suggested to me in terms of an alternative is what anomalies are created by not accepting recommendations coming from such bodies.
"Doing so would create more anomalies than those we seek to eliminate."
