Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 105: To ask the Minister for Finance if he is satisfied that bonus pay linked to performances of public service managers should be regarded as part of core pay. [5251/10]

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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Question 160: To ask the Minister for Finance the reason, after the passage of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act, 2009, he chose to reduce the cuts in basic pay of certain senior public servants to the extent that their cuts in basic pay are a smaller proportion of basic pay than cuts endured by the lowest paid public servants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5343/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 105 and 160 together.

The total remuneration package of Assistant Secretaries and Deputy Secretaries in the civil service, and of related grades in other parts of the public service, included a scheme of performance-related pay which gave an average payment of 10% of salary. In 2009, it was decided the scheme would be terminated subject to discussion on the implementation of the decision with the relevant staff association.

In applying the recent reductions in pay, I considered that account had to be taken of the reduction in remuneration for Assistant Secretaries, Deputy Secretaries and related grades arising from the termination of the scheme of performance-related pay. Otherwise, the total reduction in remuneration for these grades would have been greater than those for other public servants including higher paid groups at the level of Secretary General or above. I decided that the reductions should comprise both a reduction in the salary scale and the termination of the scheme of performance-related pay previously payable to the grades. The resulting adjustments, including the effect of the termination of the scheme of performance-related pay, produce significant reductions in remuneration of 14% in the case of the grade of Deputy Secretary and 11.8% in the case of the grade of Assistant Secretary. These reductions are higher than those applying to other groups at the lower salary levels and significantly higher than the minimum reduction provided for under the legislation of 5%.