Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 93: To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the progress of the Croke Park agreement. [12838/11]

Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 109: To ask the Minister for Finance the position regarding the €1 billion in savings promised in the public sector under the Croke Park agreement; the savings and reforms from this agreement; the savings and reforms of the Croke Park agreement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14306/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 93 and 109 together.

The National Recovery Plan 2010 - 2014 commits to savings of about €1.2 billion in the Public Service Exchequer Pay Bill in the four years between 2010 and 2014, to be achieved, inter alia, by reducing the number of public servants by 24,750 over 2008 levels and by leveraging the mechanisms of the Public Service Agreement to secure efficiencies in all areas. Under that Plan, the Exchequer Pay Bill for 2011 is some €223m less than for 2010. Given the pressing need to cut expenditure, it is clear that we must ensure that the public service is leaner, more productive and more efficient. At the same time, we must make every effort to maintain and improve services to the public and to business.

The framework provided by the Public Service Agreement will be critical to achieving these objectives and the Government is on record as saying that it would like to see an accelerated implementation of the reform agenda set out in the Agreement. Paragraph 1.16 of the Agreement provides for annual reviews, focusing on the "sustainable savings generated from the implementation of the Agreement and of the agreements in each sector". In addition, it was envisaged that there would be regular reporting of progress on the implementation of the Action Plans developed for each sector.

Over recent weeks, the Implementation Body, chaired by P.J. Fitzpatrick, has been overseeing the first such review of progress to date under the Agreement to determine the sustainable savings that have been achieved and the progress made across the public service on delivering the reform agenda set out in sectoral Action Plans. I intend to submit the Report of the Body to Government shortly and publish it thereafter. As the Deputy will appreciate, it would be inappropriate to comment further on these issues pending Government's consideration of the Implementation Body's report.