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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 8, 10 and 106 together.

Under the Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020, which we negotiated last year, it was agreed by all parties that there would be an examination of remaining salary scale issues in respect of post-January 2011 recruits at entry grades. The agreement stated that this would be undertaken within 12 months of the commencement of the agreement.

In addition, when the legislation to give effect to the terms of the agreement, the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act 2017, was going through the Oireachtas the Government accepted an amendment at section 11 which provided that within three months of the passing of the Act, I would prepare and lay before the Oireachtas a report on the cost of dealing with pay equalisation for new entrants to the public service and a plan for doing so. This was a significant body of work, which was carried out by the Irish Government Economic Evaluation Service. On 16 March last, I submitted the report on the matter, which outlined the figures in this regard. It would be a two-point adjustment overall for our public services, involving an annual cost of €200 million.

Discussions on this issue with public service trade unions and representative associations commenced in October 2017, with a further plenary meeting taking place in April and further discussions taking place since then.

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