Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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216. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the annual cost over one year of equalising pay amounts for post-2011 entrants to the public service within one year (details supplied). [23611/18]

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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217. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the annual costs over two years of equalising pay amounts for post-2011 entrants to the public service within one year (details supplied). [23612/18]

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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218. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the annual costs over two years of equalising pay amounts for post-2011 entrants to the public service within two years (details supplied). [23613/18]

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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219. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the annual costs over three years of equalising pay amounts for post-2011 entrants to the public service within two years (details supplied). [23614/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 216 to 219, inclusive, 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 and on conclusion of this work the parties would discuss and agree how the issues might be addressed under the terms of the PSSA. 

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 the 16th of March This report estimated the overall cost of a two point  incremental adjustment to be in the range of €195m - €200m for over 60,000 staff identified as new entrants.

As detailed in the Report, the costs are annualised and an increment date of 1 January is assumed to give the full one year cost. However, increment dates across the year vary significantly by individual and sector while salary scales and the structure of such scales across the public service as they affect individuals is not consistent. Accordingly the necessary information to furnish the additional information sought by the Deputy regarding phased implementation of a two increment adjustment is not currently available to my Department.    

However, in recognition of this, since the publication of the report, my Department, in support of the discussions between the parties, has engaged in further work to assess and model the potential budgetary implications and impacts through phasing of the overall quantum.  This work is currently ongoing.