Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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486. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the estimated full year cost of repealing the FEMPI legislation. [41221/21]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The phased unwinding of the Financial Emergency legislation commenced under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2015 and will be completed under the Public Services Pay and Pensions Act 2017 and the Public Service Pay Act 2021.

On 1 July 2021, under Section 19 of the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act 2017, pay restoration for all public servants with annualised salaries up to €150,000 was completed. This brought the proportion of public servants whose salaries have been fully restored up to 99%.

By 1 July 2022, Section 20 of the Act provides for the completion of FEMPI restoration for public servants with annualised basic salaries of more than €150,000.

The estimated full year cost of these measures is approximately €87m, based on public service numbers for Budget 2021.

Each year, under the terms of the FEMPI Act 2013, I am obliged to carry out an annual review of the operation, effectiveness and impact of the FEMPI Acts, having regard to the overall economic conditions in the State and national competitiveness. In this annual review, I am also to consider whether or not any of the provision of the relevant Acts continue to be necessary having regard to the purposes of those Acts, the revenues of the State and State commitments in respect of public service pay and pensions.

The 2021 annual review, a written report of which was laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas in June 2021, recommended the continuation of the unwinding of the FEMPI measures in line with the legislation.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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487. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the estimated full year cost of paying all employed public sector staff on the pre-2011 pay grade. [41222/21]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The reduced new entrant pay scales for civil and public servants introduced in 2011 were abolished in 2013 under the Haddington Road Agreement, where it was agreed to merge the new scales and existing scales - typically by adding the lower two points of the new scale to the existing scale. As such there are no separate reduced pay scales for civil and public servants.

Under the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA) 2018 – 2020, it was agreed to examine the remaining salary scale issues, associated with the addition of the extra points, for those recruited to entry grades after January 2011. The report, laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas in March 2018, estimated the point in time cost of advancing new entrants to the public service two points along their incremental scales. The report estimated a cost of €199.8m in respect of 60,513 new entrants, an average cost of €3,300 per FTE.

The report is available to view here

Following this report, negotiations with the Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions took place over 2018 resulting in an agreement on new entrant salary scales being reached in September 2018.

The main components of the agreement are:

- where two additional scale points were applied to pay scales under the Haddington Road Agreement, it was agreed that there will be two separate interventions in the pay scales as they apply to new entrant public servants recruited since January 2011.

- the two separate interventions will take place at point 4 and point 8 of the pay scales. The practical effect of this is that for new entrants the relevant points on the scale will be bypassed, thereby reducing the time spent on the scale for progression to the maximum point.

- in situations where only one point was added to the existing pay scale under Haddington Road, then the first point (i.e. Point 4) is bypassed by eligible new entrants.

- this measure was applied from 1 March 2019 and will be applied to each new entrant as they reach the relevant scale points (point 4 and point 8) on their current increment date.

This is an agreement of considerable scale and complexity, each element of which was the product of negotiation with ICTU.

In respect of new entrant teachers the parties to Building Momentum 2021-2022 agreed that in final conclusion to the arrangements put in place in September 2018, as part of the Public Service Stability Agreement, 2018-2020, the following measures will be implemented to resolve in full the remaining salary scale issues pertaining to new entrant teachers.

- New entrant teachers who have been recruited since 1 January 2011, after progressing to point 11 of the teaching salary scale will, on their next increment date, move to point 13.

- New entrant teachers, recruited since 1 January 2011, who have already reached point 12 or higher on the teaching salary scale, will on their next increment date after the commencement of the Agreement, move one point further than they would under normal incremental progression.

These arrangements are set out in section 4.3 of the Agreement.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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488. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the estimated full year cost of paying TDs all salary increments due between now and the end of 2022. [41223/21]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, TDs do not get incremental salary increases and instead are on a fixed point scale.There is therefore no cost in relation to increments.