Ms Oonagh Buckley:

As was stated - I believe the committee was briefed by the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform - the allowances were defined in four different ways, but primarily three. There were allowances for which, on review of the business case, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform considered that there was an adequate business case for their continued payment to new beneficiaries. Of the 14 national allowances indicated by local government, a number of those have been approved for payment to new beneficiaries. In other words, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, having reviewed the business case made by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, considers there is an adequate business case for their continued payment to new beneficiaries. There are two other groups of allowances - those we considered did not have a business case for payment to new beneficiaries, and those we considered should be reviewed in their terms of payment to both serving and new beneficiaries. Those are the communications that have come out of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to all sectors. There is a much smaller group of allowances on which we have suspended a decision or need more information. There are only a small number of allowances in that field.

All I can say is that we have taken an approach here which is that management has to take decisions around what it will do and then, and only then, engage with staff representatives. We have consistently said that engagement will take place. We communicated formally with the public service committee of ICTU in December when we commenced the allowances review. We communicated formally with it on the outcome of the review. Our intention is that there be local engagement through the proper industrial relations forum, as is appropriate in this sort of scenario. This is what any employer does. He or she looks at the cost base and then decides whether there is a need to approach union representatives or staff on what he or she is going to do. That is the approach that is being adopted in this case. It is pretty standard and is exactly as we have done in a number of other areas in which we decided to examine and change the terms and conditions of employment of public servants. I already cited paid sick leave as one of those areas.