The government will REFUSE to step in and stop TDs from getting a €5,400 pay increase over the next 15 months.

TDs' pay is due to be increased in two tranches, next April and the following January, after being cut under the Croke Park and Haddington Road pay deals.

Ministers have already agreed to forego their own pay increases, which are worth just over €4,000 a year for the next three years.

But this afternoon in the Dáil, Paschal Donohoe says he will NOT step in to cancel the more modest increases for TDs.

He argued that the only way to guarantee independent thought among TDs - and that they would not be beholden to outside interests - was to make sure they were adequately paid.

He also argued that ministers should not control how much backbenchers get paid: