The average salary here fell by €249 last year.

New figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show the average person earned €35,830 last year. That is down from €36,079 the year before.

This compares with an increase of 0.5% between 2011 and 2012, when the 2011 value was €35,905.

But wages in the communications sector are over €155 higher than four years ago, while public sector pay is down over 15% in the same period.

Across the economic sectors, average annual earnings rose in seven of the 13 sectors in the year to 2013 - with the largest percentage increase in the arts, entertainment, recreation and other services sector.

This rose from €24,071 to €25,158.

The largest sectoral percentage drop was seen in the human health and social work sector, where wages fell from €36,737 to €35,763.

Fianna Fáil jobs spokesman Dara Calleary says wages need to hold steady as more people get back to work.