The UK's highest paid public sector worker gets paid £259,999.
Ireland's highest paid public sector worker gets paid €752,568
In June this year, the UK government released the names of 171 public servants who were earning more than £150,000.
John Fingleton, the head of the Office of Fair Trading was the top earner on £259,999 with NHS chief executive David Nicholson, in second place on £255,000. Hold that figure in your head for a moment.
Public sector pay is under attack in the UK as it is in Ireland - on Friday, Eric Pickles, the local government secretary, insisted that he will no longer tolerate salaries higher than David Cameron's basic pay of £142,500.
But if the UK public sector is full of "fat cats", the Irish public sector is full of "morbidly obese cats".
Tomorrow the Irish public face the most austere budget in the nation's history and public sector pay and pensions is at last on the agenda. But it is highly unlikely there will be any cuts that see top earners taking home less than the prime minister.
So back to Fingleton's pay of £255,000. It's not like for like, but the following will give you a flavour of the runaway public sector pay in Ireland.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/ireland-business-blog-with-lisa-ocarroll/2010/dec/06/ireland-public-sector-fat-cats
