Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This matter has been raised by the Deputy and a number of other Deputies for some time, and I and my officials instigated much work to clarify what that figure would be. We estimate, as I said, that it would be more than €209 million. We have come to this figure on the basis of a cost in education of €70 million, using that figure then to work out what the consequences would be in other Departments.

Regarding the principles of what the Deputy has just said to me, I will make a broad, two-fold point to him. First, as the pay commission pointed out, at current levels of remuneration, we are successful in attracting very good graduates and new starters to nearly all aspects of our public service. The pay commission stated that: "Based on the numbers of applicants and the gradual increase in overall public service numbers, we found no evidence to support the view that reduced pay rates for new entrants represented a barrier to recruitment to the public service in general." Second, in workplaces all over the country and all over the public sector, not to mention the private sector, it is the case that many employees joined based on the economic health of the employer at the point in time at which they joined that organisation. The same applies in the public services. There are many different circumstances available to different employees at the points they joined. That said, these are the figures. It is a huge amount of money from the point of view of pay, and we will do what we can to address many matters in the context of the negotiations now under way.

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