Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The  Haddington Road agreement, underpinned by the financial emergency measures in the public interest legislation, forms the cornerstone of public pay policy until 2016 when it is due to expire. The agreement which contains a number of measures directly affecting the pay of staff is delivering and making a significant contribution to the achievement of the Government's fiscal consolidation target to have a deficit below 3% of GDP this year. The ongoing recovery in the economy is, in no small part, due to the contribution of public servants, as I acknowledge repeatedly.

The public service pay bill must be maintained at sustainable levels. The recovery has facilitated reinvestment, as I have said, in some front line services. In 2015 some €300 million will be reinvested in health, education and An Garda Síochána. The FEMPI Acts deliver about €2.2 billion in reduced public service remuneration and pensions. Notwithstanding our improving economy, because of the magnitude of that sum of money the economy could not sustain the immediate restoration of all of those reductions. Most public servants and their representatives understand that.

I have indicated that, following receipt of the first quarter exchequer returns and engagement with my colleagues in government, it is intended that I talk to the public service unions regarding the gradual unwinding, in parallel and consistent with the improving economy, of the FEMPI Acts. This is consistent with the approach adopted in securing agreement on the Haddington Road agreement through engagement with those directly involved.

In essence, early in the next quarter I intend to open the books in the same way, explain what we need to do, hear the proposals from the public service unions in terms of the priorities they would set for unwinding and to engage on that in a way that is sustainable. That would have to be voted upon and it is my hope that we would have an agreement before I present the expenditure books to the Dáil in the next budget.

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