Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 90: To ask the Minister for Finance the number of persons in the public sector on salaries in excess of the Government pay cap of €200,000 and to include the names and the salaries of those earning more than the pay cap; if he will outline in detail the instances in which he has sanctioned a breach of the pay cap since he came to office including the salary he sanctioned, the name of the individual in question, the details of the position and the reasons he sanctioned such an exception or breach of the pay cap. [41289/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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In my Department, no staff members are in receipt of a salary of more than €200,000 per annum. I understand that although the Secretary General's nominal salary is significantly higher than €200,000, he has gifted the excess to the state on a voluntary basis. I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that, having taken salary sacrifice into account, there are no Revenue staff in receipt of a salary of more than €200,000 per annum.

As Minister for Finance I have no role in sanctioning conditions of employment of staff in the Central Bank. Under the Central Bank Act, 1942, the employment of staff at the Central Bank and their terms and conditions are matters for the Central Bank Commission.

The Central Bank of Ireland publishes details of the remuneration of its senior office holders in its annual report.

I have been informed by the Central Bank that the three office holders who are on salaries in excess of €200,000 are: Governor, Patrick Honohan (€213,000); Deputy Governor, Financial Regulation, Matthew Elderfield (€340,000); and Deputy Governor, Central Banking, Stefan Gerlach (€250,000).

In addition, two other employees of the Central Bank, on fixed term contracts, are on salaries between €200,000 and €250,000. For contractual reasons, it is not possible to name those individuals.

Only one employee of the Central Bank has been appointed on a salary in excess of €200,000 since the introduction of the pay cap – the Deputy Governor, Central Banking. In this case the appointment was being finalised when the pay cap policy was announced. The appointment was made with my consent and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform was also consulted and it was confirmed that the appointment was not contrary to Government decisions on higher level pay in the public service.

The general policy that a salary ceiling of €200,000 will apply to persons serving in higher positions in the public service does not apply to either the Central Bank or the NTMA. In the case of the NTMA, its remuneration structure is such that there are no general pay grades and all staff are employed under individually-negotiated contracts, confidential to the individual concerned. This business model has allowed the NTMA to staff itself to date with the necessary technical expertise to successfully carry out the financial and risk management functions which have been assigned to it, including the recruitment of specialists in mid-career from the private sector.

I am informed by the NTMA that there are 16 employees of the NTMA with salaries in excess of €200,000. Details of the remuneration of the Chief Executives of the NTMA, National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) and the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) have been published in the Annual Reports for 2010 for the respective bodies.