TDs are expected to seek a £250-a-week pay rise as part of a major review of Oireachtas members salaries to begin next month. The review of the salaries of government ministers, Dail deputies and senators, comes just six months after they received their last pay rise under Partnership 2000.
The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, has decided that the four-yearly pay review for senior office-holders in the public sector, including members of the Oireachtas and the judiciary, will begin in January and will be chaired by Mr Michael Buckley.
It is understood that TDs are to seek pay parity under the review with principal officers in the Civil Service, who earn £50,000 a year. That would give TDs a salary increase of £12,000 a year, or £250 a week.
The last Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector, which was also chaired by Mr Buckley, reported in December 1996. On that occasion a claim by TDs for a pay rise of 30 per cent was reduced to 3 per cent, but Cabinet members received an 18 per cent increase.
Under phase three of Partnership 2000, effective from July 1st last, TDs' annual salaries increased to £38,035. The Taoiseach's salary rose to £111,203, the Tanaiste's to £95,724, ministers to £88,747, ministers of state to £60,813 and senators to £24,068.
The Irish Times has learned that TDs are to propose to the review body that their salaries be linked to senior civil service grades. Their ideal would be a parity with principal officers which would see TDs' pay increase to £50,000 a year.
The Fianna Fail chairman of the Oireachtas Members' Services Sub-Committee, Mr Tony Killeen, said that putting TDs on an incremental scale linked to civil service pay levels would be a much fairer way of determining Oireachtas members' salaries.
"I would not be happy with the review body setting TDs' pay at low levels in the Civil Service. It should be at a higher grade," he said.
The claim to the Buckley review on behalf of TDs will be made by Mr Killeen's committee. Mr Killeen said the committee had not formally decided on its pitch but would do so as soon as the review body began work in January.
A Department of Finance source said the review body was not expected to report for six months and that Mr McCreevy had given a clear indication he would accept and implement its recommendations.
Mr McCreevy is on record as favouring a substantial pay increase for TDs. He believes politicians have been underselling themselves for too long and should not be afraid to pay themselves because of what the public and media reaction would be.
The primary function of the review body, set up as a standing committee in 1969, is to advise the Government on the general salary level for ministers, TDs, senators, members of the judiciary and higher civil servants. It was given a mandate to report every four years in 1991.
The recommendations of the last review in December 1996 were accepted in principle by the rainbow coalition before it left office in 1997, but the coalition deferred the implementation of the increases in the run-up to the last general election.
The ail-PD coalition present Government implemented most of the review body's findings last March, awarding Cabinet members an 18 per cent increase and TDs a 3 per cent rise backdated to April 1997.
An official announcement about the setting up of the latest review body examination of pay is expected from the Department of Finance later this week.