Higher-level civil and public service personnel including TDs are to receive a pay boost from Thursday with the restoration of cuts made previously under financial emergency legislation.
Civil and public servants earning between €70,000 and €150,000 will benefit from the final rowing back of austerity-era pay cuts from the beginning of July as provided for under the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act in 2017.
It is understood that on average the grades concerned will see their pay increase by between 1.5 per cent and 2 per cent as part of the new restoration process.
The pay rate for TDs will increase from €98,113, which it reached at the end of last October, to €100,191 – the rate that applied in 2008 prior to the application of various cuts under financial emergency legislation.
The pay of TDs is linked to the principal officer grade in the civil service.
Deal
Politicians and other public service staff who receive the pay restoration in July will not qualify for a separate 1 per cent pay rise scheduled for State employees in October under the terms of a pay deal reached with trade unions last December.
In the civil service, the pay boost will mainly apply to general service grades of assistant principal and principal officer as well as equivalent professional technical personnel.
The pay restoration will also apply to staff earning between €70,000 and €150,000 in other parts of the State sector such as the health service, local authorities, education and Defence Forces.
The Department of Public Expenditure, in a circular officially authorising the pay changes, said the majority of civil servants with pay rates below these grades have already received pay restoration.
High earners
The circular said pay restoration for very high earners – those receiving more than €150,000 – was due to be completed by July 2022 under the terms of the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act.
Under the pay restoration initiative, the new pay scale for principal officers (higher) who were appointed after 1995 and who pay the Class A rate of PRSI contribution and make an employee contribution in respect of personal superannuation benefits, will now range from €97,617 to €120,382. This compares with a scale ranging from €95,661 to €117,352 up to now.
