University professors have been granted a backdated pay increase of 8% which will see their maximum salary rise to over €150,000 a year, putting further pressure on the strained resources of third-level colleges.

The payments have been due for almost two years. The 8% pay increase is made up of a 5.5% raise recommended by the review body on top-level public servants' pay in September 2007 and a 2.5% increase due since March 2008 under the last national pay agreement. They will not be paid any increase under the current national pay deal.

The Higher Education Authority (HEA) had withheld this 8% increase to the estimated 400 professors while it investigated what the HEA claimed were unauthorised allowances paid to some professors which had not been sanctioned by the Department of Finance or the Department of Education.

It is understood the HEA has identified about 100 such unauthorised payments ranging from a dean's allowance to an extra payment which dates back to the early 17th century.

Education minister Batt O'Keeffe said the increases granted to the professors were in line with what had been already awarded to other senior public servants. However, he repeated his call for the top earners in universities to show leadership by taking a pay cut in line with other similarly paid public servants.

Mike Jennings of the Irish Federation of University Teachers said the professors' pay rise had been unfairly delayed for up to two years by the actions of the more senior academic staff.

editorial, page 21