Wages in the public sector are rising twice as fast as wages in both industry and the financial sector, and five times faster than wages in construction, according to new official figures from the Central Statistics Office.
This rapid growth in public sector wages is in line with the benchmarking pay awards agreed by the Social Partners for public servants.
According to today's figures there are now 345,000 public service jobs.
This is 9,000 more than the cap on public sector employment imposed by former Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy in December 2002.
And the cost of funding these unplanned jobs is now running at €380 million per year. That is enough to cut the top of income tax by 2%, or to cut the standard rate of income tax by 1%.
Today's data also reveals that the number employed in the Garda Síochána has risen by just 300 since the last election.
This is despite a pledge by Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats in their Programme for Government to deliver 2,000 extra gardaí.
