A senior civil servant earned a €21,500 performance-related bonus payment last year, according to figures released by the Minister for Finance, Mr Cowen.
A total of €2.2 million in performance payments was awarded to 204 senior civil servants, gardaí and Defence Forces personnel for their productivity last year. Just one person involved in the scheme did not receive a bonus. The average payment was €10,600 and the lowest was €2,000 in the scheme, which has been running for two years.
The highest earner was not identified but assistant and deputy secretaries of Departments, deputy and assistant Garda commissioners and major generals and brigadier generals in the Defence Forces are eligible for the scheme.
The Minister said he was "satisfied that procedures are in place to ensure that recommendations for awards are considered fully".
Performance-related payments started with effect from January 2002 for civil servants, and in May of that year for the Garda and Defence Forces. A total of €2 million was paid for that year, with the highest individual payment at €20,500 and the lowest about €1,700.
The funding is based on 10 per cent of salaries, but payments of up to 20 per cent can be made.
The awards are adjudicated by a five-member committee chaired by Mr Eddie Sullivan, secretary general of public service management and development at the Department of Finance. The committee also includes the secretary general to the Government, Mr Dermot McCarthy, Ms Ann Fitzgerald, secretary general of the Irish Association of Investment Managers, Mr Maurice Keane, former group chief executive of the Bank of Ireland Group, and Mr Tony O'Brien, chairman of the C & C Group.
The Minister told Labour's finance spokeswoman, Ms Joan Burton in a written Dáil reply that the committee had a majority of private sector members. They examined the recommendations of secretaries general, the Garda Commissioner and the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces and "decide on the award for each person covered by the scheme".
