The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has told the Dáil he expects to exceed this year's target for the reduction of public service workers.
Mr Howlin said the target was to bring the number of public sector workers down to 301,000 by the end of the year but he expected to undercut this by a ‘significant amount’
He said this was due in part to the retirement incentives which based pensions on salaries prior to the recent pay cuts.
The Government is aiming to reduce the public sector by 25,000 workers by 2015.
Answering questions in the Dáil today, the Minister also said there are 28 post holders in the public service who are still in receipt of salaries over the €250,000 pay ceiling.
He said 45 members of the judiciary, a number of hospital consultants and nine CEOs in commercial semi-States were also in receipt of salaries above the proposed cap.
