Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Yes, I will come to that. My recollection is that this issue was mentioned by the Minister for Finance at Cabinet. Approximately one third of those covered by the review body have been affected by the termination of an applicable performance-related awards scheme. The pay to one group, assistant secretaries, was found by the review body not to be out of line, having regard to its comparators in the eurozone. On the other hand, applying the full reduction recommended by the body would have meant an effective reduction of an average of 18% and 22% in the remuneration packages of assistant secretaries and deputy secretaries, respectively, which would be higher than for other public servants, including Secretaries General. The Minister for Finance considered that this was not appropriate and decided that a different arrangement should apply to certain Civil Service and related grades where a scheme of performance-related awards has been terminated. In reply to Deputy Ó Caoláin, I made the point that approximately 600 employees in the public service would be affected. In those cases, the reduction comprises both the reduction in the salary scale and the termination of the awards scheme. I already have given the other information in reply to the previous question from Deputy Ó Caoláin. The Minister brought his obligation to consider the matter to the Government's attention and he subsequently made the decision.

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