Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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52. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he is engaged in discussions to agree revised principles for a new higher education staffing agreement to update the current employment control framework; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45523/21]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I refer the Deputy to my previous response to PQ32471/21 on 17 June 2021. Officials from my Department engage on an ongoing basis with colleagues in the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS) and the Higher Education Authority (HEA) on multiple policy and operational issues, including consideration of principles for a Higher Education Staffing Agreement. The purpose of a Higher Education Staffing Agreement, once finalised, will be to update the existing overarching Employment Control Framework (ECF) approach which has been in place since 2010 and which is still in place in a number of sectors in the public service.

While the operation and management of the existing ECF approach is a matter for DFHERIS, HEA and the individual Higher Education Institutes (HEIs), key issues from my Department’s perspective are to ensure that it appropriately reflects fiscal, expenditure and public service staffing and pay policies. Regarding the overarching principles for a new approach, my Department is seeking to ensure that staffing decisions taken in the higher education sector are affordable and sustainable both from a higher education perspective but also from an Exchequer and wider public service staffing and pensions perspective. My Department is also mindful of the need to ensure that there is appropriate flexibility built in to any revised approach so that HEIs can operate efficiently in making their staffing decisions, having regard to their overall expenditure allocations and other appropriate controls.