Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2013

Permanent Page URL

Reduction in remuneration of public servants who earn more than €65,000.

2.— The Act of 2009 is amended by inserting the following sections after section 2:

“Public servants’ remuneration: reduction, with effect from 1 July 2013, for certain public servants.

2A.— (1) In this section—

(a) a reference to a relevant provision shall, other than in the case of a public servant to whom section 10 (2) of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2013 relates, be read as a reference to that provision as it has effect, subject to any direction given under section 6, by virtue of the operation of section 2;

(b) a reference to the annual remuneration of a public servant is a reference to the public servant’s annual basic salary, together with any fixed, periodic allowance that is—

(i) reckonable for the purposes of calculating a pension entitlement of the public servant, and

(ii) paid to the public servant as part of his or her annual remuneration,

and, for the purposes of this section, the definition of ‘public servant’ in section 1 shall apply as if in paragraph (e) of that definition the words ‘who was appointed to judicial office before the commencement of section 10 of the FinancialEmergency Measures in the Public Interest (Amendment) Act 2011’ were omitted.

(2) A relevant provision that fixes the remuneration, or any part of the remuneration, of a public servant whose annual remuneration exceeds €65,000 shall be taken to have been amended, with effect on and from 1 July 2013, in accordance with this section.

(3) Where the remuneration of a public servant is fixed by a relevant provision, then the relevant provision shall be taken to have been amended so that the remuneration is reduced in accordance with the Table to this section.

(4) Where the application to a public servant of subsections (2) and (3) and the Table to this section would result in his or her annual remuneration being reduced to less than €65,000, then those subsections and that Table shall only operate to reduce his or her annual remuneration to €65,000.

(5) Where a public servant is entitled as part of his or her annual remuneration to the payment of an allowance and the allowance—

(a) is not reimbursement of any expense actually incurred, and

(b) is expressed as a specified percentage or specified proportion of another part of the remuneration (referred to in this subsection as ‘basic salary’) of a public servant to whom the relevant provision applies,

then the public servant’s basic salary, for the purposes of calculating the amount payable as the allowance, is his or her basic salary reduced in accordance with subsections (2) and (3) and the Table to this section.

(6) This section has effect notwithstanding—

(a) any provision by or under—

(i) any other Act,

(ii) any statute or other document to like effect of a university or other third level institution,

(iii) any circular or instrument or other document,

(iv) any written agreement or contractual arrangement,

(b) any verbal agreement, arrangement or understanding or any expectation.

Table

Reduction in Remuneration of Public Servants Earning More Than €65,000

Annualised amount of Remuneration	Reduction
Up to €80,000	5.5 per cent
Any amount over €80,000 but not over €150,000	8 per cent
Any amount over €150,000 but not over €185,000	9 per cent
Any amount over €185,000	10 per cent

Alteration of remuneration (other than basic salary) or working time of public servants.

2B.— (1) In this section—

‘Act of 1997’ means the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 ;

‘remuneration’ does not include basic salary;

‘working time’ has the meaning it has in the Act of 1997.

(2) A power conferred by or under any enactment to fix the terms and conditions of persons who are public servants may, notwithstanding any thing referred to in subsection (3), be exercised so as—

(a) to result in less favourable remuneration for those persons, in respect of the employment, office or position held by them in the public service body concerned, than that enjoyed by them immediately before the exercise of the power, or

(b) to provide that the working time, whether by reference to a day, a week or a month, of those persons in the employment, office or position held by them in the public service body concerned shall, to a specified extent, be greater (but not greater than that which is permitted by the Act of 1997) than that which stood provided, immediately before the exercise of the power, to be their working time in that employment, office or position.

(3) The things referred to in subsection (2) are—