Results 21,001-21,020 of 27,945 for speaker:Michael McGrath

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: First, we should not understate the significance of the State committing to a capital investment programme of more than €9 billion at a time when we are forecasting a deficit in the current year of somewhere in the region of €25 billion to €30 billion. Ten years ago, in very different times and when different circumstances applied, capital expenditure was slashed by some...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: I strongly support investment in capital expenditure projects. Now is the right time to make that investment because we can borrow at historically low levels of interests. There are many unmet infrastructure needs throughout the country. We have an opportunity now that should be taken and it falls to me to be the advocate within Government for doing so. To be fair, the prioritisation...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Ministerial Advisers (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: The appointment of special advisers by Government to assist Ministers and Ministers of State is provided for under section 11 of the Public Service Management Act 1997.   Special adviser appointments were initially considered by my Cabinet colleagues and me at the Government meeting of 4 August last. At that meeting, the Government approved the proposed guidelines setting out the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Ministerial Advisers (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: I should point out that special advisers are appointed under section 11 of the Act. It would be helpful to set out what the functions are. The Act provides that a special adviser shall assist the relevant Minister by providing advice and by "monitoring, facilitating and securing the achievement of Government objectives that relate to the Department" and "performing such other functions as...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Ministerial Advisers (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: Ultimately the Government will be judged by its performance on the key issues: managing the pandemic; ultimately bringing about economic recovery; and on addressing the pre-Covid challenges. Those challenges are still very much there and will become even more acute if we do not address them. They include the housing crisis, the long-term structural reforms needed in our health service and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Ministerial Advisers (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: Yes, absolutely. The Deputy has put that on the record and acknowledged that fact. I assume they provided a good service and were valuable to the Deputy. I shall now turn to the numbers. Once the process has been completed - and it has not been completed at this point, even on the numbers the Deputy has speculated on - all details will be published in an open and transparent way.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: The Public Service Pay and Pension Act 2017 provides for the restoration of reductions made to public service pay and pensions by the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Acts 2010 to 2013. That process of restoration began on 1 January 2018 and is due to conclude by 1 July 2022. In that regard, on 1 October 2020, public servants will receive a 2% pay increase by way of...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: To be clear, if we were to repeal the suite of FEMPI legislation tomorrow then certain former public servants on quite high pensions would have the pension reductions that were imposed on them reversed immediately. In addition, all very senior public and civil servants, including politicians, would have the cuts that were imposed reversed overnight. We need to deal with this issue in a...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: I have put on the record on a number of occasions as Minister my admiration for the work of our public servants. We now have approximately 340,000 public servants, over one third of whom work in our health service. The work they have put in over the last number of months has been immense, against huge adversity. We are doing the right thing as a Government in honouring the agreement that...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: I thank the Deputy for his question. The first point to note is that the 1 October adjustments to pay in the public service form part of the broader ongoing process of unwinding FEMPI reductions which was negotiated with public service trade unions and delivered through successive collective agreements, from the Lansdowne Road agreement to the current public service stability agreement. ...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: In essence what the Deputy is proposing is that the link between the pay of a Deputy and the principal officer grade in the Civil Service be broken. I am not sure what alternative system the Deputy is proposing to carve out the pay of politicians. It is up to each individual to make whatever decision he or she wishes to make. I am forgoing the increase because it is the right thing to do....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: What the Deputy is saying is that politicians should decide their own pay. I do not believe that is a good system. I do not believe that, in any other walk of life, people get to decide their own pay. There is a pay increase that people can decide to either accept or reject. Apart from the 2% increase, which the Deputy says he is gifting back to the State, what I hear him say, in essence,...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: We have had the full round of questions but I am happy to come back in.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: Deputy Boyd Barrett got an extra round so, to be fair, I will take a further moment. I assume he is suggesting that legislation would be introduced to set politicians' pay, and then we would be the only body I am aware of that would have the power to, in essence, set its own pay. I hear the Deputy talk about a fund that his party uses to distribute to worthy causes, and I have no doubt they...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: That is a view the Deputy is perfectly entitled to hold and, as a Member of this House, he is perfectly entitled to bring forward whatever legislation he thinks is appropriate to empower the Dáil to set its own rates of pay. I do not think that would be a better system. The system we have is completely independent and beyond our direct control. We are linked to a certain grade within...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: The Deputy has characterised this once again as politicians giving themselves a pay rise. That is misleading and he knows it is misleading. It is stoking up the anger that is undoubtedly there. The reality is that the system which is in place takes it out of the hands of politicians, in essence, and I think that is the right thing to do. The Deputy might think it would be a great thing to...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: What is it?

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: I thank the Deputy. He made some additional points. He wants every Deputy to be paid the average industrial wage and he is perfectly entitled to hold that policy. I do not know if he would also apply that policy to all other public servants earning as much as or more than Deputies. Perhaps that is his policy; I simply do not know. We have a system whereby we do not set our own pay and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: As the Deputy is aware, section 12 of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2013 obliges me to submit a written report on the operation, effectiveness and impact of FEMPI legislation to the Oireachtas before 30 June each year.  As part of those reports, I consider whether or not any of the provisions of the relevant Acts continue to be necessary having regard to the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (29 Sep 2020)

Michael McGrath: I thank the Deputy. It is fair to point out that the emphasis of the restoration process to date has been on low and middle-income earners within the public service. By 1 October, people earning up to €70,000 will have had their pay fully restored. That is a significant milestone. There are further measures in the FEMPI Acts, to which I have alluded. A process is set out in the...