Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy made a number of points. I think I answered a lot of this in a Question Time back in November. I think Deputy Kenny knows most of the answers to the questions he has asked. There has been a review body for higher public servants, the Judiciary, the Garda Síochána and other senior positions, covering approximately 1,600 people, for the past 40 years. It used to report every five years. The last report, which was implemented, was in 1997. The Deputy's own Government made a decision to implement it. The increases were not very big. That was implemented the following year by a Government that I led. All of the increases over the 40 years have been implemented. They are phased by the Government, which is a practice that has been followed.

The same has happened in this case. The review body, which is independent of Government, examines and outlines its report. It has outlined the report. It has given the facts itself. It has outlined in detail the comparables and how they operate. The last benchmarking report was five years ago. The last report on this, was more than seven years ago. When it is implemented it will be ten years. It is double the length of the benchmarking report. That is a considerable factor. That apart, the increases recommended by the review body average 7.3%. They range from a number of posts, which receive no increase, to one post the pay of which was increased by 36%. That was the manager of Dublin City Council. For approximately half of those covered, the increase is 5.5%. They are Civil Service assistant secretaries and related posts, including university professors.

The Government decided to phase in the increases over 18 months. That was all of those increases. It decided to implement the part relating to it over a three-year period and not to pay anything until a year after the report was published. The review body's recommendations are based on comparison of the public service posts with posts in the private sector with comparable levels of duties and responsibilities. The recommendations are based on the lower quartile of the private sector rates. They have been further reduced by 15% to allow for the superior value of public service pensions relative to the private sector. Regarding members of the Government and other political officeholders, the review body considered that direct comparison with the private sector was not appropriate and that the salaries of senior public servants were a more relevant comparator.

It did not compare them with comparable posts in the private sector because it would have been too high. Any of the quartiles that were taken would have put my salary up at €600,000. I did not need that, I can tell the House.

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