Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The talks under way are focused on public service pay. There have been wider discussions at the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, on other issues that the Government can assist with in respect of the cost of living and public policy on a range of key issues for employers and employees. We have implemented a range of measures so far. The Deputy will be well aware of them. If one goes back to the most recent budget and what we have done since, it was in the order of €2.4 billion. That is why I have made the point that we cannot solely address inflation and the cost of living through pay. If we were to do that, it would put at risk the competitiveness of the economy as well as creating and sustaining further jobs into the future. That is a consideration. We have to make sure that we remain competitive, so it is about ensuring that through pay, tax and other levers the Government has we are, insofar as possible, providing sufficient support to people at this time.

All the advice has been to do it in a targeted way and to take account of the impact of one-off measures, some of which have been implemented so far, and of temporary measures. The Government is working on that. However, public service pay is approximately one third of current expenditure. It is approximately €24 billion so securing certainty about that bill for the remainder of this year and all of next year is an important ingredient in the overall budgetary mix.

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