Could Cabinet reject or delay the pay awards?

Maybe it’s just for public consumption but it’s another day of chastened-sounding statements from FF. Willie O’Dea managed to go a bit beyond Bertie’s “work harder” and dropped a hint that the Cabinet is taking another look at the pay review recommendations for ministerial and public service posts.

‘If it comes up before the Cabinet we’ll all have an input and thrash it out and see what the possibilities are.’

Asked about the public reaction to the increases, he replied: ‘To be honest about it, yes people have said to me that the size of the increases appear to ordinary people to be unjustified.’

There are several options. The pay review board only makes recommendations which don’t have to be accepted, and the phase-in could be altered in some way to make it look less embarrassing when matched up against the annual pay awards that other workers will be getting. In particular, they could delay the latter two stages of the award for ministers, although recent events have also brought scrutiny to pay of secretaries-general as well.

A talkative O’Dea also was willing to discuss Bertie’s retirement, placing it after the local and European elections in 2 years. In one respect, a logical time to go, although that gets into the question of what those results might actually look like for FF. Would Bertie want to leave right after a bad performance? Bertie’s real nightmare (and I think this is very unlikely) is that a disaster in the EU Constitreaty referendum next year could force his hand.