Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is crucial. Public sector pay is the single largest component of total current expenditure. Any change in our public sector wage bill that affects everybody else in our public service has a really big effect on the total level of current expenditure within our economy. One of these issues is currently before the Labour Court. I acknowledge that. Work is under way concerning healthcare assistants. All I will say is that as we approach the halfway point in the three-year agreement the payments we are making to the vast majority of our public servants are unchanged from what we assumed under that agreement. When we were putting this agreement together we assumed a certain level of wage increase on certain timescales, outside the changes we are due to make for nurses. This is why the new nursing contract will be so important. The changes we have made with regard to everybody else are planned and are inside the planned budgetary parameters.