Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 138: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the progress that has been made in the various reviews of special awards within the public service due to a report in 2007; and his views on the need to reform the process for setting and implementing special pay awards within the public service. [23769/07]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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There are four such reports due in 2007 and I will outline the position in relation to each, as follows:

I recently received the final report of the seventh general review of the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector and I will be bringing proposals to the Government for consideration.

The Public Service Benchmarking Body is due to report at the end of the year.

The Parallel Benchmarking report on the pay of craft workers was presented to both parties on 15 June 2007. Discussions are ongoing in relation to the recommendations.

Hay Management Consultants have carried out a review of the salaries of Chief Executive Officers of commercial State bodies and recently submitted their report. I will be bringing proposals to Government on their recommendations.

Government policy on public service pay is quite simple. It is that the public service should be in a position to attract and attain its fair share of good quality staff at all levels. It should neither lead the market nor trail it. Periodic reviews of public service pay levels are necessary to deliver on that criterion.

The pay of the majority of public servants comes within the remit of the Public Service Benchmarking Body. This is an independent body. Benchmarking arose from the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness and is a process for determining public service pay rates through comparison of specific roles, duties and responsibilities in the public service by reference to comparable positions in the economy generally. In this way, appropriate, grade-specific salary levels may be determined for the public service that are grounded in the rates applicable to similar jobs in the private sector. The first Benchmarking Report was published in 2002 and the Benchmarking Body is well advanced in its work for a second report which is expected to be completed around the end of the year.

Benchmarking has been accepted, by both the employers and unions, as a significant improvement on the old pay determination system which was based on relativities whereby if one grade or group of public sector workers received an increase it led to leapfrogging and catch up claims right throughout the public service.

Payment of any pay increases in the public service is contingent on co-operation with a robust agenda of measures to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and user friendliness of our public services and to the maintenance of industrial peace. Progress on the modernisation agenda is monitored by Performance Verification Groups for the various sectors and payment of any increase under the agreement is subject to verification of co-operation with flexibility and on-going change, including co-operation with the implementation of the agenda for modernisation. There is a need for continuous improvement and development across the whole range of public services.