Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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349. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the estimated first-year and full-year cost of bringing all public service workers up to the living wage of €12.17 per hour; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37617/22]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The suggested Living Wage at €12.17 per hour based on the Civil Service 35 hour standard net working week equates to an annual salary of approximately €22,226.07. Detailed data on civil service staff indicates that less than 0.1% of staff (FTE) in the civil service are on salary points less than this suggested Living Wage.

Those currently on an annual salary of less than €22,226.07 may be receiving remuneration in excess of the suggested living wage through additional premium payments in respect of shift work or atypical working hours. In addition, these salary scales progress to the suggested Living Wage and above through normal incremental progression.

The current public service agreement is Building Momentum - A New Public Service Agreement 2021-2022. This Agreement is weighted towards those at lower incomes with headline increases of approximately 5% for the lowest paid public servants. The Agreement provides for the following pay adjustments:

- A general round increase in annualised basic salary for all public servants of 1% or €500, whichever is greater, on 1 October 2021.

- The equivalent of a 1% increase in annualised basic salaries to be used as a Sectoral Bargaining Fund, in accordance with Chapter 2 of the Agreement, on 1 February 2022.

- A general round increase in annualised basic salaries for all public servants of 1% or €500, whichever is greater on, 1 October 2022.

These groups will also benefit more from other measures in the Agreement including the overtime rates and premia payment adjustments.

The public service information sought in this request would require detailed data on the position of staff on each salary scale across the public service and details of the standard working hours per week for each individual grade. This data is not held in my Department.

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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352. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the area from which funding will be drawn if the funding for the new public sector pay deal is not baselined in the Summer Economic Statement Table 1 budgetary decisions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37827/22]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Summer Economic Statement (SES), published on 4th July 2022, sets out the key parameters for Budget 2023. This included an increase to the 2022 and 2023 core expenditure growth rates to 6 per cent and 6½ per cent respectively. These adjustments were made to respond to the challenging economic context, in particular regarding inflationary pressures.

To protect public services, core spending will increase by 6.5 per cent next year. This will result in a core expenditure ceiling of €85.8 billion in 2023. This ceiling will provide for an expenditure budgetary package of €5.65 billion over 2022 and 2023. This significant annual increase in expenditure balances the need to protect core public services and help to mitigate the cost of living pressures while ensuring that budgetary policy does not become part of the inflation problem.

As set out in the SES, €3 billion of this overall expenditure increase is required to fund the increase in capital expenditure set out in the National Development Plan, and to provide for costs relating to existing levels of service (ELS). These estimated ELS costs of c. €2.2 billion include funding for pressures in respect of demographics, carryover from Budget 2022 decisions and existing public service pay commitments. The National Development Plan has provided a further €0.8 billion of capital expenditure for 2023.

This leaves approximately €2.7 billion for new measures in Budget 2023, with €0.4 billion of this amount phased into 2022 to allow for early implementation of measures. Costs in relation to a new public service pay deal would be met from within this overall amount available for new measures.