Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 6, 18, 25, 30, 32 and 103 together.

The Government has indicated that an additional saving of €1 billion in the pay and pensions bill will be necessary in the period until the end of 2015 and €300 million of this saving will be needed this year to meet our spending targets. This is to support our determination to restore order to the public finances and meet our fiscal targets.

Deputies will be aware that the Government extended an invitation to the members of the public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to enter discussions with public service management on a new agenda for reductions in the cost of delivering public services and substantial longer term productivity improvements and workplace reforms. A parallel process is also under way with the associations representing the Garda and Defence Forces.

Intensive engagement, facilitated by the Labour Relations Commission, has commenced between the parties to the discussions and will continue over the coming weeks. This process will allow for the impact of any changes on individual public servants and their workplace to be explored in order that public servants have the fullest information to help them decide in any ballot.

While this is a challenging and complex process, the Government wishes to reach an agreement that allows substantial costs to be extracted and enhances public service productivity to the benefit of all those who rely on public services. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, has indicated that he wants to achieve the necessary savings in a way that is broadly equitable and impacts most on those who are best able to afford it.

Any measures aimed at achieving overall savings of €1 billion will have to involve reductions in payroll costs for serving staff as well as significant productivity and workforce reform measures, in addition to those already achieved under the current Croke Park agreement. To ensure that savings can be found as early as possible in 2013 to meet expenditure commitments, management has indicated that these intensive discussions should conclude in a matter of weeks. The Minister has indicated a date of the end of February. The management negotiators will present a range of measures they believe can deliver the necessary savings.

It would not be helpful or appropriate to discuss the details of the various issues that are part of these discussions. They are subject to ongoing bilateral engagement between the parties in the correct forum and any comment at this time would not help and could impede the discussions. The Minister will brief the House in full on the outcome of any engagements. However, the Government will not offer any comment on the current negotiations until they are concluded in full.

It is worth emphasising that the current agreement remains in place while these discussions are under way and the reforms under the current framework are continuing. It is intended that any new agreement will build on the work done to date and use the same successful fast-track mechanisms to drive change and reforms forward.

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