Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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14. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his views on the recent report on salary scale issues in respect of post-January 2011 recruits insofar as it relates to the Defence Forces intake in that time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20388/18]

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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18. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his views on the content of the report on pay equalisation as specified in the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act 2017; the actions he will take from the report; his plans for process to pay and equalisation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21712/18]

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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25. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the progress that has been made in negotiations with the relevant parties regarding the salary scale for post-2011 entrants to the public service under the terms of the PSSA; and the roadmap and timeframe towards pay equalisation in the public sector. [21511/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 14, 18 and 25 together.

The Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020 (PSSA), provided that an examination of remaining salary scale issues in respect of post January 2011 recruits at entry grades would be undertaken within 12 months of the commencement of the Agreement.

Additionally, as the Deputy is aware, this Government accepted an amendment at Section 11 of the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act 2017, that within 3 months of the passing of the Act, I would prepare and lay before the Oireachtas a report on the cost of and a plan in dealing with pay equalisation for new entrants to the public service.

This was a significant body of work and staff resources from within the Irish Government Economic Evaluation Service (IGEES) were assigned to collect, collate and examine the data and provide detailed point in time costs associated with the measure.

In accordance with the legislation I submitted a report to the Oireachtas on 16 March.

This report estimated the overall cost of a two point increment adjustment at €200m for the 60,500 staff identified as new entrants. Of this, approximately €3m is associated with new entrants in the Department of Defence.  Work has continued to improve the accuracy of this estimate and as a result of new data submitted it is likely that the estimated cost in the Department of Defence will increase slightly. It is not expected that this additional data will impact the overall estimated cost of approximately €200m per annum.

Discussion on this issue with Unions, which commenced in October of last year, are ongoing with the last meeting taking place on 27 April. Further engagement is being arranged for early June.