Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Question 16: To ask the Minister for Finance if research has been conducted into the gap between public sector and private sector pay; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12521/06]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Government position on public service pay is very clear. The public service must be able to attract and retain a reasonable proportion of good quality staff at all levels. In this respect, it should neither lead the field, nor trail behind. The independent benchmarking process affords a means whereby painstaking comparisons between public service jobs and their counterparts in the private sector can be made and appropriate pay rates for the public service determined. This process looks at qualifications, responsibilities, hours worked and a range of other factors.

The job evaluation and salary review carried out by the Public Service Benchmarking Body in its first review in 2000 to 2002 was one of the most extensive ever carried out not alone in this country but anywhere. While the benchmarking body, which has now commenced the second benchmarking exercise, may not find it necessary to repeat reviews on quite the same scale given the sizable existing data bank, it is expected to carry out extensive independent research as part of this exercise also.

While my Department monitors pay developments across the economy on an ongoing basis, it does not carry out or commission its own research on public and private sector jobs and pay rates — except in respect of a limited number of specific cases such as the appropriate remuneration levels of chief executive officers of commercial State companies — as this would be to duplicate the work and costs of the benchmarking body.

There have been some other research projects carried out into the levels of public and private sector pay using different methodologies. While I am satisfied that the benchmarking approach based on comparisons of actual job responsibilities and weights is the most appropriate, such other research approaches are a useful additional input and will no doubt be considered by the benchmarking body in its work.