In how many instances since February 2020 has the Minister's Department set aside the existing guidance on remuneration rates for civil servants or employees of State-funded bodies regarding persons earning more than €120,000?

The current framework for pay determination provides that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has statutory responsibility for the remuneration of civil servants, as set out in section 17 of the Civil Service Regulation Act 1956, as amended.

The statutory framework governing remuneration for posts in State-funded bodies is set out in the relevant legislation governing each post. The terms for these posts are determined in line with the relevant statutory framework. Additionally, the pay of public servants is managed under the framework of Building Momentum - A New Public Service Agreement 2021-2022, which was agreed in December 2020. This is a two-year agreement extending the framework of public service agreements, including the Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020, which expired on 31 December 2020.

As the Deputy will be aware, prior to 2009, the remuneration for senior posts was informed by recommendations of the review body on higher remuneration in the public sector. The review body was an independent advisory body established on a non-statutory basis in the 1960s and provided objective, evidence-based assessments to inform pay policy via periodic reviews of the adequacy of remuneration for senior grades. With the onset of the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, era, the final report of the review body was published in December 2009. As I recently outlined to the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach at a meeting attended by the Deputy, I intend to establish an external review panel to examine the current process for determining the terms and conditions of employment for senior posts, and I expect to bring a proposal to the Government very shortly in that regard. I will write to the committee with the details, as I promised I would do.

Perhaps the Minister will use his remaining minute to answer the question I put to him in the first instance. I asked about the number of instances in which he has set aside the existing guidelines. We welcome the fact new measures will be put in place, but in my work as a member of both the Committee of Public Accounts and the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I have encountered at least two instances where the existing guidelines were breached. The Secretary General of the Department of Health received a pay increase of more than €80,000, with no justification, rationale or process whatsoever, and we still do not know exactly how the Minister and his colleagues in the Government came to that decision. Likewise, in the case of the chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland, a substantial increase above what the existing guidelines had laid down was approved by, in the first instance, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and then signed off by the Minister, Deputy McGrath. Again, it is very difficult to get answers as to how that decision was arrived at.

I reiterate my question. In exactly how many instances have the existing guidelines on pay been breached?

The Deputy touched on two broad areas. On civil servants, the legal position is clear. There is a statutory framework for the determination of pay. It is to be found, as I said, in section 17 of the Civil Service Regulation Act 1956, as amended. Under that legislation, the power is vested in the Minister, who has statutory responsibility for the remuneration of civil servants.

When it comes to State-funded bodies, there is separate legislation in respect of each governing sector, and the terms for the posts are determined in line with the relevant statutory framework. In all cases, the relevant statutory framework has been complied with in any decisions that have been made.