Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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346. To ask the Minister for Social Protection further to Parliamentary Question No. 300 of 9 of March 2017, the areas which the 117 persons in receipt of family income supplement work in the Defence Forces; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24519/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Family Income Supplement (FIS) Section is unable to provide any further information over and above the number of Defence Force members in receipt of a FIS payment. The information provided by the customer to the Department on a FIS application includes confirmation provided by the customer’s employer that they are in remunerative employment. The Department does not require the customer to provide information on the area in which they work for their employer.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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347. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of family income supplement recipients who work in the public service; his views on whether the public sector should take the lead in paying decent salaries to employees; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24518/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The number of Public Servants in receipt of Family Income Supplement (FIS) is 3,629.

The most recent aggregate data (based on pay bands) available to the Department indicates that some 93% of all public service staff are on salary points in excess of €25,000 per annum.The commonly referenced living wage rate of €11.50 per hour, based on the Civil Service 37 hour standard net working week, equates to an annual salary of €22,203.

Data on Civil Service staff indicates that only approx 4% of staff (FTE) in the Civil Service are on salary points less than €22,203, with the majority of those on points in the range €20,000 to €22,000. The estimated cost within the civil service, which is some 12% of the overall public service, would be €1.6m. Detailed costings in other sectors of the public service would require collation and estimation on an individual sector level, based on detailed data on the position of staff on each salary scale across the public service and details of the standard working hours per week for each individual grade.This detailed data is only available to individual public service employers.

Any of those currently on an annual salary of less than €22,203 in the public service may be receiving remuneration in excess of the suggested living wage through additional premium payments in respect of shift or atypical working hours or may benefit from salary scales that progress to the referenced living wage through incremental progression.

From April 1st, the €1,000 increase in annualised salaries for public servants earning under €65,000 will further increase the numbers of public servants earning in excess of €11.50 per hour and reduce the potential additional cost accruing to the Exchequer from the introduction of a Living Wage.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) issued a research paper on the 15thMarch 2017 which presents an econometric analysis of the public/private sector pay differential for the period 2011 to 2014. It has been prepared in response to user needs to inform discussions relating to the composition of earnings

The main findings were:

- The pay premium for the public service has been declining over the time period (2011-2014).

- In 2014 excluding PRD the pay premium was approximately 5%.

- Including PRD the pay premium marginally favoured the private sector.

- Results are differentiate by gender with male public servants earning less than equivalent private sector (-6.7% including PRD) and females earning more in the public service (+7.8% including PRD). This likely relates to the preponderance of males in senior management positions.

- In keeping with other studies, the analysis shows a pay premium in favour of the public service concentrated at lower levels. In 2014, including PRD, public servants in the 10th percentile of the earning distribution had a premium of 11.19% compared to the private sector while the equivalent figure for the 90th percentile was -12.48%.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.