Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

As the Deputy will be aware, over the past two years, the Government has taken a series of difficult but critical steps which have generated significant reductions in the potential public service pay bill. As a consequence, the public service pay roll will be more than 8% less in 2010 compared to 2009 and nearly 12% less than in 2008. These measures include the non-payment of proposed general round increases under the review and transitional agreement, the application of a pension related deduction of an average of nearly 7% to the earnings of all public servants and, at the beginning of this year, a reduction in the rates of pay and allowances for public servants was implemented under the terms of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act 2009.

In addition to these measures, the introduction of a general moratorium on recruitment and promotion together with incentivised early retirement and career break schemes and natural turnover of public servants who retire or leave has led to a reduction in the number of public servants employed by almost 11,000 since March 2009. Government policy on staff numbers in the public service is reflected in employment control frameworks for each sector of the public service. The continued application of the frameworks across the public service will result in a further reduction in public service employee numbers up to 2012.

The agreement provides that, where circumstances warrant it, the Government may offer voluntary mechanisms to exit the public service, either generally or targeted towards specific sectors or bodies. However, having regard to reduction in numbers I have already noted and the continued application of the employment control frameworks, the Government has no present plans to introduce further schemes. The effective implementation of the agreement and the efficiencies and other measures which will arise from that will provide a sustainable framework to manage the provision and delivery of our essential public services despite the reductions in public service numbers and in a period of unprecedented pressure on resources.

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