Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 19 November 2015
Public Accounts Committee
2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Vote 18 - Shared Services
Vote 41 - Office of Government Procurement
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 5 - Management of Government Grants
Chapter 6 - Payroll Accrual for National Accounts
Chapter 7 - National Lottery Fund
10:00 am
Mr. Robert Watt:
The agreement covers three years and the cost is a little under €300 million for each of those years - €260 million, €270 million or €280 million depending on the year. The cost is €267 million for next year, €290 million in 2017 and €287 million in 2018. Approximately €900 million would be the cost of the restoration over those three years and that would have an impact on the take-home pay of public servants, depending on where they are within the scale.
The Government decided in percentage terms to focus the reductions more on the lower to middle income groups, and they are benefiting more from the changes. Broadly, there are two changes. There is the winding up of the pension related deduction, which affects the vast majority of public servants and there is an increase for lower income groups from 1 January. There are changes in pay depending on the income group and the income level.