Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)

My Department has 19 agencies in total, 12 commercial and seven non-commercial, which have either a CEO or commissioner running the organisation. All CEO and commissioner contracts under the aegis of my Department have terms and conditions based on sanction received from the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation. All CEO salaries and benefits are published in the company’s annual report and financial statements, in keeping with the business and financial reporting requirements of the 2016 code of practice for the governance of State bodies.

In 2024, the senior post remuneration committee carried out a review of the remuneration arrangements for CEOs of commercial State bodies. This was the first such review since 2011. It was necessary to align CEO salaries with the market and to deal with recruitment and retention issues in commercial State bodies. The results of that review were published in March of this year. Following that review, the committee designated salary bands with defined salary parameters for each commercial agency. Requests received by the Department within those parameters are considered and approved by the Minister and then require sanction from the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation. No salary increases for a CEO under the aegis of my Department are approved without the prior sanction of the Minister for public expenditure.

Since the publication of the review and associated salary bands, two of the 12 commercial agencies under my Department have been awarded salary increases. Both of these agencies, Iarnród Éireann and Bus Éireann, were undergoing recruitment campaigns for new CEOs. Any increase in salaries that has been sanctioned following this process is in keeping with the salary band provided for these posts by the senior post remuneration committee review.

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