DESPITE WATER CHARGES being suspended, Irish Water staff are receiving bonuses based on their performance.

A Freedom of Information request by the Sunday Independent revealed that all 675 Irish Water staff received a bonus payment of almost €5,000 on average, totalling €3.2 million.

It’s also reported that staff receive other perks such as car allowances and funded fitness instructors as well as health insurance packages for executives and their spouses.

However Adrian Kane from SIPTU told Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1 that Irish Water staff are not overpaid.

When asked if all Irish Water staff got bonuses, Kane said:

Well if you want to call it bonuses and you want to sensationalise everything with regard to Irish Water you can get me to say yes but I’ll try to explain the actual situation on the ground.

“There’s 675 people working in Irish Water. The majority of people are on ranges of between €25,000 and €55,000 … and the sort of performance related allowances typically range from around €750 to €1,500.

#Open journalism No news is bad news Support The Journal Your contributions will help us continue to deliver the stories that are important to you Support us now

When asked if all staff received a bonus, Kane said, “It wouldn’t be correct to say that all staff did”. He said that he couldn’t say definitively but added, “It would strike me as strange that some people wouldn’t have.”

He explained that there was a pay freeze in the company since 2008, adding, “We managed to get a pay increase of 2.2% this year which was below the average where pay increases are taking place.”

The people we represent in Irish Water aren’t overly paid, that’s for sure. They do a hard day’s work and the performance related allowance they get is not very significant.

“We’d prefer a more traditional pay model and we’ve instigated a review of the pay model looking to get to a place we believe would be fairer and more transparent.”