Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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23. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the extent to which savings identified in the context of the Haddington Road and or Croke Park agreements remain on or have exceeded target; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49525/13]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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89. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the extent to which longer working hours, wage and or salary cuts, or other reforms have each contributed to meeting the budgetary targets required under the Croke Park and Haddington Road agreements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50056/13]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 23 and 89 together.

The Haddington Road Agreement will deliver a €1 billion saving in the cost of the public service pay and pensions bill by 2016.

The Agreement is already delivering on its objectives. In terms of cost reduction, €300 million of savings were incorporated into the various votes in the Revised Estimates Volume 2013, which represents a real and tangible reduction in expenditure. In relation to 2014 and future years, the savings to be generated from the Agreement will be incorporated into the estimates for all votes as part of the estimates process.

While these monetary targets are of critical importance, it is also important to remember some of the other key benefits which this Agreement brings. It provides us with the scope to progress the reform agenda and to deliver unprecedented increases in productivity across the Public Service. The benefits from the additional hours under the Agreement are significant, with measures around increased productivity set to deliver approximately €430 million of the €1 billion targeted savings.

In relation to the Croke Park Agreement, the final report of the Implementation Body concluded that it facilitated significant cost savings, amounting to €1.8 billion over its lifetime, comprising of almost €1 billion in pay savings and over €800 million in non-pay efficiency savings. The Agreement also ensured the delivery of central reforms while acting as a facilitator for a large number of reforms at sectoral level, across all sectors of the Public Service, in a climate of industrial peace. The report also concluded that the overwhelming majority of commitments around cost extraction, reform and changed work practices had been substantially delivered.

Finally, the Deputy may wish to note that an updated Public Service Reform Plan covering the period 2014 to 2016 is currently being developed and the Haddington Road Agreement will act as a key enabler for the delivery of this Reform Plan.