Every grade side by side
3 grades covered so far, ordered by starting salary. The ceiling column includes any long service increments, and the years column is how long it takes to get there.
| Grade | Starts on | Ceiling | Years to ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senator | €83,666 | €83,666 | flat rate |
| TD | €119,467 | €119,467 | flat rate |
| Government minister | €167,759 | €256,311 | flat rate |
Senator, about €4,646 a month take-home.
Government minister, reached after 0 years.
How pay works in this sector
Pay in the Oireachtas works differently from the rest of the public service in one important way: there is no incremental scale. Nearly every other job on this site pays you more each year as you move up a numbered scale, for anything from five to fifteen years. A TD is paid €119,467 in their first week and €119,467 in their twentieth year. The only way the figure changes is by taking on an office.
That makes the published totals easy to misread. When a figure of €217,136 is reported for a minister, it is not a minister's salary in the way a nurse has a salary. It is the ordinary parliamentary salary of €119,467 plus an office allowance of €97,669, and the second part stops the day they leave office while the first continues.
Two facts tend to surprise people. The Ceann Comhairle is paid more than the Taoiseach, €268,522 against €256,311, because the allowance for chairing the Dáil is the largest in the Oireachtas. And elected office is not the top of public sector pay at all: a hospital consultant reaches €286,151, comfortably above every politician in the country.
Expenses are a separate matter from salary and are easy to conflate with it. The Parliamentary Standard Allowance has two halves. The travel allowance is set by how far you live from Leinster House, not by what you spend, and runs from €9,000 to €34,065 for a TD. The public representation allowance is capped and must be vouched with receipts. Ministers and the Ceann Comhairle cannot claim the travel allowance at all.
Pick a grade
Every grade in this sector, including any kept out of the table above because their pay is not a salary.