Government-appointed board members to get significant pay rise

Hundreds of politically appointed chairpersons and board members across government entities are set to receive significant increases in their annual remuneration under a new Cabinet Office framework that overhauls the classification and payment structure of government-appointed boards and committees.

The new manual, approved by the Cabinet Office and issued in July, replaces rules that had largely remained unchanged since 2013 and introduces a new system under which every government board has been categorised, classified and assigned a remuneration level.

Among the most significant changes are substantial increases in the annual fees paid to non-executive board members, mostly political appointees.

The annual remuneration of a non-executive chairperson in one of the principal remuneration bands will increase from some €20,000 to around €26,000, representing a 30% increase.

Ordinary non-executive directors, mostly canvassers of the minister who appoints them, in the same category will see their annual remuneration rise from €8,000 to €11,500 – an increase of almost 44%.

The increases come as the government has completed a nationwide exercise classifying boards and committees across all ministries, a process which the new manual says has already been finalised.

The document delegates responsibility for categorising, classifying and determining the remuneration of boards to permanent secretaries within each ministry.

The manual states that the old arrangements required a complete overhaul to reflect modern governance structures and remuneration levels.

Under the new system, boards are divided into seven categories – commercial, regulatory, constitutional, adjudication, managerial, administrative and advisory – with remuneration determined according to a scoring system that assesses the complexity, responsibilities and governance requirements of each board.

Commercial boards are classified according to the size of the organisation, taking into account annual income, assets and workforce, while regulatory and managerial boards are assessed using a series of governance criteria, including the powers they exercise, their influence on government policy and the level of responsibility entrusted to them.

With hundreds of government-appointed boards, authorities, tribunals and committees operating across the public sector, the new remuneration framework is expected to increase the annual cost of board appointments substantially, although the Cabinet Office has not published any estimate of its financial impact.