Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Haddington Road agreement sets out the basis of a further €1 billion contribution by the public service pay and pensions bill to our fiscal recovery through a series of equitable and sustainable measures. These measures will allow for the creation of a more streamlined and unified public service. In addition, the agreement will give certainty to public servants over the next three year period.

As Members of the House are acutely aware, we entered into discussions with trade unions with an ambitious target of agreeing on a number of measures aimed at reducing the public service pay and pensions bill by €1 billion by the end of 2015 and by €300 million this year. That was the basis on which we engaged with staff representatives and it was the imperative on which any agreement had to be delivered. As I have stated previously in the House, the Government is satisfied that the provisions set out in the Haddington Road agreement will deliver the targeted savings of €300 million this year and €1 billion by 2015.

The agreement has already started to deliver in terms of significant cost reductions, increased productivity, changes to work practices and key reforms. The €300 million savings target for 2013, arising from measures under the agreement, was incorporated into the various Votes in the context of the Revised Estimates, which I published last April as the Deputy will recall. In this context, Deputies will be aware that the Exchequer returns at the end of September show that expenditure is being effectively managed within those voted allocations. The Haddington Road agreement is playing a key part in ensuring expenditure continues to be contained within those relevant ceilings.

I find the outcome of the ASTI ballot on the agreement regrettable. The Government is fully supportive of the Minister for Education and Skills in seeking to minimise the disruption the industrial action taken by teachers will cause in classrooms, while seeking to ensure the integrity of the public service agreement, and the achievement of the necessary savings from the education sector pay bill. I again ask the ASTI to examine the costs to its members of remaining outside the Haddington Road agreement and to reflect further upon this matter, particularly given that the non-implementation of this agreement will have the greatest impact on young, newly qualified teachers.

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