RTÉ News has learned that 53 Irish Water employees have received salaries higher than they said they wanted when first applying for the jobs.
Applicants for jobs at Irish Water are generally told of the salary range for the relevant post.
Candidates applying for a job went through what the company calls a pre-screening interview, at which many were asked about their salary expectations.
Under Freedom of Information regulations Irish Water released some records, including those for 322 successful candidates.
They show that 121 of those did not express a clear level of salary expectation.
The other 201 did say how much they wanted.
Of those, 71 ended up with a salary lower than that number.
77 were employed at the salary they expected and 53 were given a salary higher than they expected.
Irish Water has said applicants were asked about salary at an early stage to screen out those whose expectations were too high or too low, and this was not about negotiating a salary which was later decided according to candidates’ experience and responsibility.
In a statement this morning, the company said: "Any suggestion that Irish Water has hired staff at higher salaries than necessary is completely wrong.
"It is absolutely meaningless to compare salary expectations expressed by potential job candidates during pre-interview telephone screening with the actual salary at which successful candidates are hired for any role.
"Each role in Irish Water has a specific salary range that is independently externally benchmarked. Salaries offered to successful candidates are within this range and based on the experience and skills of the candidate and on the requirements of the job.
"Pay levels in Ervia and Irish Water are lower than the market average. The recently published independent review of the Ervia pay model clearly states that 'median employee pay in Ervia broadly equates to the market lower quartile'. Rather than pay rates in the company being excessive, the opposite is the case."
