David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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22. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the cost of ensuring that workers in his Department recruited post-2011 are paid the pre-2011 salary rate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16653/16]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Policy in relation to pay in the Public Service is, in the first instance, a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

The cost of ensuring that employees in myThe cost of ensuring that employees in my Department who were recruited post-2011 are paid the pre-2011 salary rate is governed by the manner in which the provisions of the National Recovery Plan and subsequent Haddington Road and Lansdowne Road Agreements have been implemented.

There are various factors which impact on the pay scale under which employees were recruited to my Department, including:

- Employees may have had prior public service experience in which case they would enter on pre-2011 pay scales.

- Employees may have been offered and accepted employment in my Department in 2010 but may not have been in a position to undertake duties until post-2011. Such staff were exempted from the 10% reduction in pay encompassed by the National Recovery Plan.

Accordingly, no additional costs would arise to ensure that employees in such instances were paid the pre-2011 rate.

Pay scales were further impacted by the merging of pre- and post- 2011 pay scales from 1 November 2013. The resultant level of mitigation would vary depending on the date of entry of the employee, the point on the pay scale the employee had entered at and whether they had subsequently been promoted and placed on a pre-2011 pay scale.

The complexity of calculating these costs is further compounded by the fact that pay costs impact on individual employees differently, depending on the pay band into which they fall.

Accordingly, it is not possible to accurately capture the notional costs referred to by the Deputy, given the above complexities.

I can however, assure the Deputy that the provisions of the Lansdowne Road Agreement, which takes cognisance of the State’s improved finances and which now commences the process of income restoration, will further mitigate any disparity which would have arisen initially under the National Recovery Plan between pre and post 2011 salaries, and the current implementation of the Haddington Road Agreement.