Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 21 Apr 1994

Vol. 441 No. 7

Written Answers. - Public Sector Pay Bill.

Desmond J. O'Malley

Ceist:

53 Mr. O'Malley asked the Minister for Finance, in view of the fact that the OECD economic survey of Ireland published in June 1993, showed that the average pay of Government sector employees in 1992 was £19,839 and that the Public Service pay bill between 1992 and 1994 has increased from £3,756 million to £4,360 million which, allowing for increased numbers of about 2.5 per cent, will bring the average pay of Government employees to about £22,465 in 1994, the number of Government sector employees who are earning in 1994 over £60,000 per annum; between £40,000 and £60,000 per annum and between £20,000 and £40,000 per annum broken down by the following categories of employees, Civil Service, education sector, health services, local authorities and all Government sector employees.

Minister for Finance (Mr. B. Ahern)

Information in the precise form sought by the Deputy in relation to the earnings of Government sector employees is not readily available in my Department. Such particulars are obtained by my Department from the various sectors of the public service from time to time, as required. I have asked that the most recent figures are furnished at this stage, and I will be happy to provide them directly to the Deputy as soon as they become available.

I understand that the OECD figure quoted by the Deputy is obtained by dividing the Excherquer pay bill by the average numbers employed in the year in question. That bill covers non-capital supply expenditure on pay in the Civil Service, the Permanent Defence Force, Garda, national and secondary school services together with estimates of amounts included for pay in grants to all health service agencies, non-commercial State bodies, vocational education committees and third level education institutions. In the latter cases, the amounts granted do not necessarily cover the full payroll cost in the services concerned, the balance being made up by own resources and other receipts. The pay of local authority staff is not included in the Exchequer pay bill by accounting convention.

The average thus obtained provides a crude indicator of the averageper capita cost to the Exchequer of employing public servants which does not correspond to their average pay or earnings. There are a number of technical factors, for instance, the timing and treatment of offsetting receipts, the number of paydays in the calendar year in question or variations in the pay-non-pay classifiction of expenditure from time to time, which may distort the evaluation of the Exchequer pay bill from year to year. For these reasons, the averages used by the OECD must be treated with caution.