Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Page 35 of the programme for Government contains a number of commitments in respect of public sector pay. Yesterday, the Minister for Finance made a much anticipated announcement in respect of pay restoration. As the Taoiseach knows, more than 60,000 public sector workers, including 16,000 teachers and nearly 10,000 nurses who entered service after 2011, currently earn less than colleagues for performing the same work. We have consistently called on the Government to find a fair and sensible unwinding of pay cuts and deliver pay restoration and equality. The proposals announced yesterday fall very short of the mark and do not provide full pay equality until as late as 2026, which is almost a decade away.

This could be done sooner. We have proposed the delivery of full pay equality by the beginning of 2020. This is affordable and would see all post-2011 entrants receiving an initial pay increase at the beginning of 2019, with full pay equality by 2020. Does the Taoiseach agree that the Minister should go back to the drawing board in this regard?

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