Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation

The attached Guidelines are in operation in the Revenue Commissioners regarding suspensions of staff including payment to staff during suspension. Section 14 the Guidelines refer to advice received from the Department of Finance regarding the definition of 'Ordinary Remuneration' that's payable to staff during suspension, as follows: “’Ordinary Remuneration’ is not formally defined, but it can be taken to mean an officer's stable rate of pay over a reasonable period, say, the previous three months. If that stable rate of pay included allowances, then these allowances would be considered to be part of ordinary remuneration. Overtime pay is not included for ordinary remuneration purposes (as overtime payments are only made when the officer actually does the overtime). If an officer has received an allowance such as an acting up allowance for a short period of time only, it may be excluded from 'ordinary remuneration', in that it does not yet constitute part of the officer's stable rate of pay (which is the pay he/she has been receiving for a reasonably extended period of time).” Under the Freedom of Information Act 2014 I am seeking access to this advice from the Department of Finance to the Revenue Commissioners and to any records that may have amended this advice at any later point. In addition, I am seeking access to any advice that may have been issued from the Department of Finance or the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to any other Government Department regarding the matter of the definition of 'ordinary remuneration' for the purposes of paying 'ordinary remuneration' to employees during periods of suspension.