Cabinet members and junior ministers will be taking a pay cut of 10% backdated from the end of June, it has been confirmed.
The move follows a row about 'super junior' ministers being given an extra allowance following the formation of the new government.
A vote was passed last week in favour of giving three of the TDs what amounted to a raise of €16,000 on top of their salary of €124,000.
RTE reports that Taoiseach Micheal Martin said the decision had been reached weeks ago to make the cut but the memo was only brought to Cabinet today.
He added the matter could have been handled better.
The move directly affects Fianna Fail's Jack Chambers, Fine Gael's Hildegarde Naughton and the Green Party's Pippa Hackett, as well as more senior ministers of the Cabinet.
The Government said in a statement: "The Government today agreed that members of Government and Ministers of State would gift 10% of their salary to the State commencing from the date they took office.
"They also agreed that they would not accept the 2% pay increase due in October under the Public Services Stability Agreement."
