Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 414: To ask the Minister for Finance the return to the Exchequer in a full year if Ministerial salaries were capped at €120,000; Deputies' salaries capped at €80,000 and Senators' salaries capped at €60,000. [31871/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Based on the current membership of both Houses of the Oireachtas, the estimated saving in a full year from capping salaries of TDs at €80,000 would be €2.5m, while the estimated saving in a full year from capping salaries of Senators at €60,000 would be €0.4m.

Ministers and Ministers of State receive an Office Holder salary in addition to their salary as a TD. If a cap of €120,000 was imposed on both a Minister and Minister of State's salary the savings in a full year on the Office Holder's element only would be €0.9m.

Section 2 of the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) and Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices Act 2009 provides, inter alia, that long service increments will not be paid to any member of the Houses of the Oireachtas after the next general election. This would reduce the estimated annual savings arising from a similar capping of the salaries of TDs and Senators to €2.1m and €0.3m respectively based on full membership of both Houses of the Oireachtas.

Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 415: To ask the Minister for Finance the return to the Exchequer in a full year if he were to cap the maximum salary available to public servants and semi-State bodies at approximately four times the basic entry rate, or three times the average industrial wage cap at €100,000. [31872/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The estimated full year savings to the Exchequer if a cap of €100,000 were applied to public service salaries would be around €350m. The estimate takes account of the reductions in pay arising from the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act, 2009. The estimate does not include staff of commercial State -sponsored bodies since the Minister for Finance is not responsible for setting the rate of pay for employees in the commercial state sector.