Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the length of time it will take to realise the saving in respect of the annual value in allowances that will not be paid to new beneficiaries which he has stated as being in the region of €475m; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43398/12]

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he intends to conduct a further review of public sector allowances in 2013 to ensure that the current target savings are achieved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43405/12]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 22, 23 and 41 together.

The immediate savings arising from the recently announced reforms in 2012 are expected to be in the order of €3.5 million. Of this amount, Government Departments identified savings of some €1.5 million, the majority of which is related to the abolition of qualification allowances in Education.

Further to this, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform identified allowances which it considers not to have a valid business case, and which will not now be paid to new beneficiaries. The immediate abolition of these allowances is expected to generate savings of €2m in 2012. The largest classes of allowance responsible for these savings are rent allowances. There are also savings expected in Education and Defence through the abolition of allowances relating to living in Gaeltacht regions, on islands, and for teaching through Irish.

Significant medium term savings are achievable by precluding the payment of unjustified allowances to new beneficiaries, with the cost of allowances reducing as those in receipt of them leave, or by each public service sector reviewing the allowances paid to ensure that sufficient value is achieved from them.

In the interests of bringing these savings to the paybill forward, my Department has written to sectoral management instructing them to immediately engage with staff interests with a view to securing their early agreement to the elimination of those Departmental allowances payable to current beneficiaries, where no business cases exists to pay those allowances to new beneficiaries. In addition, Departments have been asked to identify other allowances, including legacy allowances, for elimination from current beneficiaries.

It is intended that, rather than conduct a further central review, these sectoral discussions will result in further improvements in procedures, extract greater value from those allowances that continue to be paid, and the elimination of a number of allowances for which no business case exists, leading to further savings for the Exchequer.