Top-earning civil servants will receive pay restoration on cuts that were made during the financial crisis more than a decade ago.
The pay restoration, which is due to start from next week, is the last round of the unwinding of pay cuts imposed on public servants during the financial crisis.
It will involve pay rises of between 10 per cent and 15 per cent for judges, hospital consultants and many senior officials from July 1st, the Irish Examiner reports.
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath is due to make a final decision on the pay restoration in the next couple of days.
Salaries up to €150,000, which account for 99 per cent of the public service, have already been restored in full.
"It is expected that the minister will make a decision on this issue later this week or early next week," a spokesperson for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform said.
"The minister is currently examining potential options around how and when this final element of FEMPI restoration will be implemented," the spokesperson added.
Public sector talks
Talks on a public sector pay deal finished on Friday without an agreement in place.
The Department of Public Expenditure had offered supplementary pay rises of just 2.5 per cent for the period 2021-2022, despite expected annual inflation of at least 9 per cent over the two-year period, the union negotiators said following the talks.
Mr McGrath said that "particular offer" was made in addition to previous commitments, which were made under Budget Momentum. This deal provides a 2 per cent increase across the year.
“It was 1 per cent in February, and there's a second 1% in October. So in effect, the proposal that was made by the government side would have brought the overall increase to 7 per cent across this year and next year," he said.
“That is against a forecast inflation rate across the two years of over 9 per cent. So it would have went about three quarters of the way there in respect of inflation, and we have always made the point that pay alone cannot be expected to fully offset the impact of inflation.”
Mr McGrath said previous Government measures should be taken into account. He has also committed to more measure's in October's budget.
“We think that it was a very good offer, and that it was a fair offer and also that it would have brought some extra benefits for lower-paid public sector workers with a level of benefit higher than the figures that we have spoken about.
“The WRC asked both sides to reflect on the discussions that took place last Thursday and into the early hours of Friday. The backdrop here, we acknowledge, is incredibly difficult.
“We did have an opportunity yesterday - very informally - to meet some of the key players from a trade union side so it was good to have that opportunity - just to have some face time and have a quick chat. We will reflect on all that has been said and I do hope in the coming days that it will be possible to get back into discussions. I think a collective agreement is in everyone's interests. It has to provide industrial peace to us as a government and for our economy.”
