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

The Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020 provided that an examination of remaining salary scale issues in respect of post-January 2011 recruits at entry levels would be undertaken within 12 months of the commencement of the agreement. Additionally, as the Deputy is aware, he proposed, and this Government accepted, an amendment to section 11 of the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act 2017 which provides for the implementation of the terms of the agreement. This amendment provided that I will, within three months of the passing of the Act, prepare and lay before the Oireachtas a report on the cost of and a plan in dealing with pay equalisation for new entrants to the public service. This is a significant piece of work and the Irish Government Economic Evaluation Service has been assigned to collect, collate and examine the data and provide detailed point in time costs associated with the measure.

With regard to working on and dealing with the substantive issue, work has commenced and engagement is under way on the matter of data availability. It is taking place with the HSE, the Department of Education and Skills, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer and the Department of Defence. Further meetings are being scheduled with the remaining 12 sectors and we will meet the timeline to which I committed with the Deputy in the amendment I accepted from him in December in the debate on and the passage of the legislation.

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