The Irish in Britain, including those of Irish descent, make up a significant part of the UK population. Here, you will find news, entertainment, events, sports and features from the local Irish Post newspaper.

THE PAY bonanza for Ireland’s public servants is over after a Government-appointed body recommended nurses, gardaí, teachers and soldiers should not receive a single euro extra in pay.

Out of a total workforce of 300,000 public servants barely 11,000 will receive a salary increase under the report of the Public Service Benchmarking Body.

The threat of industrial action now looms large over the Government with nurses in particular furious that their pay claims have been overlooked.

Five years after the first benchmarking report recommended average pay increases of 8.9 per cent for public servants the second report concluded most now enjoyed satisfactory salaries and generous pensions.

The report recommended increases for just 15 out of 109 public service grades examined.

The 2002 increases cost the state €1.2billion. By contrast last week’s increases will cost just €50million.

The benchmarking body acknowledged economic circumstances had changed since 2002 and said the need to underpin the country’s competitiveness was a factor in its decisions.

The benchmarking body’s task was to compare the pay and conditions of public servants with their private sector counterparts and determine whether increases were merited.

Among the 15 grades the body recognised principal medical officers received the largest increase of 15 per cent followed by assistant directors and directors of nursing with an increase of 10 per cent.

The value of public service pensions was a key factor in determining whether to award increases or not.

The benchmarking body concluded the pensions of public servants were significantly more valuable than those of the private sector.

General secretary of the Irish Nurses’ Organisation Liam Doran said he was gravely disappointed that the benchmarking body’s terms of reference did not allow it to deal with nurses’ core claim for increases.

One of the key reasons why nurses abandoned eight weeks of industrial action last year was the promise that their pay concerns would be addressed in the benchmarking process.

Fresh industrial action is now a strong possibility.

But while there was little for most public servants in the report they will get pay hikes this year from a different source.

Under the terms of the existing social partnership agreement — which is entirely separate to benchmarking — public service workers will receive a pay increase of 2.5 per cent from March 1 and another 2.5 per cent increase from September 1.