Bonuses awarded to civil servants and State officials across a range of Govt....

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1215/pay.html

Details of State bonuses revealed
Updated: 16:04, Wednesday, 15 December 2010

Dept of Finance - 100 extra payments made to officials
O'Dowd gathers Public Service bonuses information

Details of bonuses awarded to civil servants and State officials across a range of Government departments and semi-State agencies have been revealed.

The information was given in response to parliamentary questions tabled by Fine Gael Spokesman on Education and Skills Fergus O'Dowd.

Up to 100 extra payments were made to officials in the Department of Finance.

Former Chief Executive of the National Treasury Management Agency Dr Michael Somers was paid €200,000 as a performance-related bonus for last year.

Mr O'Dowd, who got details of the payments in a reply to questions to the Dáil, said the payments are unjustified at a time when social welfare payments have been cut and others in the public sector have already seen their wages reduced.

The Department of Finance said that these payments were made only to assistant principals and principal officers in their department, under the terms of the 1994 National Pay Agreement and that their pay has actually been cut by 17% in the last two years.

The revelation comes two days after Finance Minister Brian Lenihan tried to force AIB not to pay nearly €40m in bonuses to some of its staff.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen has told the Dáil that to conflate the bonuses received by public servants working in the Department of Finance with bonuses awarded to banking staff is not comparing like with like.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny called on the Taoiseach to order a complete review of the pay of higher public servants.

The Taoiseach defended the bonuses, saying they were part of the existing pay pots of those pay grades and that the average payment was between €2,000 and €2,500.

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Surely if the Minister can refuse to allow bonus payents to A.I.B. staff (from a profitable dept. and bonuses from several years back) then he should stop the payment of bonuses to another organisation being bailed out by the Irish taxpayer, i.e. the Irish Government & departments of government.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

So, we're paying bonuses to public servants from money we have to borrow at punitive interest rates from the lenders of last resort while the blind, other disabled and their carers (for example) are pushed ever closer to the edge.

This is beyond outrageous, even for that shower of outrageous buffoons.