FAS managers share in €24m pay bonanza
Bosses' wages grew at double normal rate
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Tuesday November 17 2009
PAY rates for FAS managers have grown twice as fast as those of normal employees over the past decade, new figures reveal.
FAS staff employed at management level pulled in €23.6m between them last year, compared to a total management wage bill of just €7.8m in 1998.
The huge jump is partially explained by an explosion in the number of people employed in management jobs in the state training agency in recent years.
Figures released by Tanaiste Mary Coughlan -- the Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister -- show that for every one extra employee taken on between 1998 and 2008, FAS employed the equivalent of two-and-a-half extra managers.
The pay bill for FAS managers also rose twice as fast as that of non-managers in that period. Average pay at management levels jumped from €45,967 in 1998, when there were 170 managers, to €81,414 last year, when the number of top-level employees reached 291.
In comparison, average pay for FAS operatives, the lowest-paid employees, jumped from €15,303 to €27,571 over the course of the decade.
Average pay across all non-management grades now stands at €44,200.
The figures, released to Fine Gael TD George Lee following a series of parliamentary questions, have led to accusations that the crisis-hit agency has become bloated with an unnecessarily high number of management staff.
They show that in 1997, FAS had one manager for every 11 non-management member of staff. By last year there was one manager for every 6.8.
The agency currently has 22,000 staff and a budget of €1bn a year.
Mr Lee said most of the increases in managerial pay happened while Mary Harney was Enterprise Minister between 1997 and 2004.
"That was the period when FAS descended into a financial black hole, where managers and senior executives lived the high life at taxpayers' expense," he said.
"The question has to be asked: Why did FAS need to expand its management team by 71pc when its non-management workforce increased by just 7.5pc?
"There was clearly less work to be done, and many Irish companies were recruiting staff from abroad because they couldn't find staff within Ireland."
Defended
FAS last night defended the levels of pay given to senior management, stating that all pay increases were in line with national agreements and pay movements generally.
In a statement, the agency said that three-quarters of the increase in managerial numbers was due to a one-step increase from a senior staff grade to assistant manager as part of a major restructuring.
"FAS management grades currently make up 12.8pc of total staff and the cost must be seen in the context of the very wide responsibilities of the organisation," the statement said.
"These include oversight of over 1,300 community schemes involving over 24,000 people; the operation of 70 Employment Services Offices, assisting in excess of 150,000 unemployed people; providing over 120,000 training opportunities to unemployed people; providing training and other services to 22,000 apprentices; and supporting a wide range of other services to disadvantaged people in our society."
The agency said the numbers in management were gradually declining and would be down 10pc by the end of the year.
- Shane Phelan Investigative Correspondent
Irish Independent
