The vast majority of people believe the Taoiseach and his Ministers were wrong to accept pay rises of 12-16 per cent, according to the Irish Times TNS/mrbi poll.
By contrast, a clear majority of voters believe the benchmarking body was wrong to recommend low or no pay increases for most grades of public servants.
Asked if they think the Government was right to accept substantial pay increases recommended by a review body, 81 per cent of people say it was wrong to accept the award, 11 per cent believe it was right, with 8 per cent having no opinion.
Progressive Democrat and Fianna Fáil voters were most inclined to accept the Government's decision but a massive majority of supporters of both parties still believe it was the wrong decision.
Fine Gael voters were the most hostile of all to the decision, with just 6 per cent feeling the Government was right to accept the award and 88 per cent saying it was not. Sinn Féin voters were almost as equally opposed to the decision.
The only good news for the Government on this issue is that 66 per cent of people feel it was right to defer the implementation of the award for 12 months.
Again, PD and Fianna Fáil supporters were the strongest backers of the Government decision to defer the award, with more than 70 per cent saying it was the right thing to do.
The proportion saying that the Government was not right to defer the awards was 23 per cent, but this group may include people who felt that the award should not be paid at all. On benchmarking, there is strong public opposition to the low level of awards, with 59 per cent saying the body was wrong on this and 25 per cent saying it was right.
In party political terms, the strongest support for the body comes from PD, Green Party and Fianna Fáil supporters, with more than 30 per cent of each of them backing the clampdown.
Fine Gael and Labour voters are more inclined to say the benchmarking body was wrong, while the strongest opposition of all to the recommendations comes from Sinn Féin voters, with just 13 per cent of them saying it was right.
In class terms, the middle-class, ABC1 voters are much more inclined to approve of the benchmarking body's tough stance: 30 per cent of them said it was right, by comparison with C2DE working-class voters, where support for the decision drops to 19 per cent.
Men were significantly more likely than women to approve of the body's decision, while in age terms 18- to 24-year-olds and the over-65s were most strongly opposed.
