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

As the Deputy will be aware, the Public Service Pay Commission has been asked by Government to examine the issue of recruitment and retention in the public service and to establish, in the first instance, whether and to what extent a difficulty may exist in terms of recruitment and retention in respect of specific groups, grades and sectors of the public service. Where a recruitment or retention difficulty is identified, the pay commission is tasked to examine the full range of causal factors.

It is important to point out that the terms of reference for the pay commission for this exercise, as agreed by the parties to the public service stability agreement, do not provide for a generalised pay review for any group. The pay commission emphasised this point in its first module report on nurses, non-consultant hospital doctors and consultants.

The commission is approaching its work in a modular format, having recently completed module 1. The next phase, module 2, will focus on certain other areas of the health services and the Defence Forces. The early inclusion of the Defence Forces in the pay commission's schedule of sectors to be examined under the terms of its remit was welcomed by both myself and the Minister for Defence. I can further inform the Deputy that it is the position that officials from my Department are in close liaison with their colleagues in the Department of Defence in the preparation of material for submission to the pay commission on the issues of recruitment and retention. The pay commission will, having due regard to its terms of reference, consider the matter of recruitment and retention in the Defence Forces and issue its findings accordingly. I look forward to receiving its report.

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