Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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It is a matter for each local authority to determine its own spending priorities, including taking account of  payroll costs  in the context of the annual budgetary process, having regard to both locally identified needs and available resources. As a matter of course, a local authority's payroll costs may increase because of the awarding of pay increments in the course of a year.

An allocation of €156m was secured for the local government sector, as part of the national budgetary process. Of this, €109m is specifically to assist local authorities to meet additional costs in 2020 associated with the unwinding of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (FEMPI) legislation and the cumulative effect of implementing National Pay Agreements up to and including the Public Sector Stability Agreement (PSSA). 

The overall aim of this contribution is to assist authorities in meeting the costs of increases in rates of pay for existing staff and changes to Public Sector Pension Reduction (PSPR) rates since the end of 2015 as a consequence of the unwinding of pay reductions introduced under FEMPI legislation.