Semi-State Bodies

1. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation to provide an update on the semi-State companies which have received his ministerial approval to deliver pay increases for their CEOs. [74675/26]

Will the Minister give us an update on the semi-State companies which have received approval to deliver pay increases for CEOs?

I thank Deputy Farrell. I will set out the number of salary proposals approved by the relevant Ministers to which I have consented. I have consented to 23 proposals following the approval of the relevant Minister. There were 11 proposals from the Minister for Transport, in relation to Iarnród Éireann, Bus Éireann, Bus Átha Cliath, CIÉ, the Dublin Port Company, the Shannon Airport Group, the Port of Waterford, the Port of Cork, the Dublin Airport Authority, the Irish Aviation Authority and AirNav. There were three proposals from the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, in relation to Uisce Éireann, Gas Networks Ireland and the Land Development Agency. There were two proposals from the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in relation to the Irish National Stud and Coillte. There were two proposals from the Minister for Climate, Energy and Environment in relation to Bord na Móna and the ESB. There were two proposals from the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport in relation to An Post and TG4. There was one proposal from the Minister for Health in relation to VHI. There was one proposal from Drogheda County Council in relation to Drogheda Port. In addition, consent has been granted for Shannon Foynes Port Company; however, the approved increase has not yet been implemented. The matter is being progressed by the Department of Transport. It is important to note that the senior post remuneration committee, SPRC, was established in a context where no systematic review of the pay of CEOs of semi-State commercial bodies had been carried out since 2011. In April 2024 the SPRC was requested to perform a review of the remuneration arrangements for the CEOs of commercial State bodies. In doing so, the Government was conscious of the scale, complexity and commercial responsibilities associated with leading major State companies, and their role in the management of critical national infrastructure and the delivery of investment programmes. The review was extensive, independent and evidence-based. It involved broader consultation with national and international experts and other stakeholders. The review was published at the time. The SPRC was required to have regard to the need to recruit and retain individuals with the necessary skills and experience to lead major State organisations, the need to act in the public interest and provide value for money, remuneration in comparable public and private sector roles and the impact in terms of the agreements. We have published the context in which this was decided upon by the SPRC.

Last week, the CEO of Uisce Éireann was in front of the Committee of Public Accounts. There was a discussion about his €118,000 bumper pay hike. An awful lot of people thought that his wage increased to €118,000, not that it increased by €118,000, to €392,000 - an extraordinary sum by any measure but in the context of the cost-of-living crisis and ordinary workers being forced to go out on strike just to get anything that might meet inflation, it is absolutely outrageous. What is the Minister's view? The rhetoric we hear every time people get huge bumper pay is about the need to make sure we can compete on an international stage. We also need to look at ordinary workers in hospitals. Newly graduated nurses cannot get full-time contracts in University Hospital Galway.

The context here is that the proposals are submitted by the board of a respective commercial State body to the relevant line Department, setting out the proposed new salary and supporting rationale. This is robustly interrogated by the relevant line Department, which undertakes an assessment of the proposal. Then the relevant line Minister subsequently considers the board's recommendation, the Department's analysis and also input from NewERA before making a final decision. Following this process, recommendations by the relevant Minister are submitted for my consent. We have published an extensive analysis and evaluation around this, which was undertaken by the independent SPRC. It sets the context and rationale and the banded structure in respect of different commercial State bodies where no change was made since 2011. Different Ministers have proposed different points on the scale in respect of different CEOs. There is robust oversight of that within each Department.

My question remains: does the Minister think it is appropriate? Does he think a €392,000 salary is appropriate? Does he think that an increase of €118,000 is appropriate? Is it appropriate at any period in time, but in particular is it appropriate when we have a situation where the Government literally refused to sit down with the representatives of the workers who keep this State ticking? It refused to sit down with them because the first thing that they wanted to talk about was pay. Then we have a situation where the CEO of Uisce Éireann gets a €118,000 pay rise. A number of people said to me "God, €118,000 is a lot of money as pay" and I had to tell them "No, that is what he got as an increase, not his base salary; €392,000 is his base salary." I understand that these things are done through an independent process. I understand that things then go through the line Minister and then it ultimately goes to the Minister, Deputy Chambers. In the context of everything, does he think that is appropriate?

The Deputy is conflating different issues. The facts speak for themselves in terms of the public pay talks. We did have engagement with trade unions in June and we wanted to sit down around the table. I am not going to go over all of that now except to say I welcome the fact that we are engaging at the WRC. This was a systematic review. It was undertaken independently of the Government. It proposed a structure of up to 120% of the market median. The Government decided to keep it at 100%, and then it provided a banded structure with respect to different remuneration committees of boards for making proposals to the Government. There has been robust oversight of that within each Department. As I said, it is well documented and transparent about how the process is undertaken with respect to each CEO.