Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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101. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if his attention has been drawn to the fact the Croke Park agreement hours are no longer in place; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that for many employees in the public sector, the overtime entitlement is based on the rules in place prior to these hours ending; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48393/22]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Croke Park and Haddington Road Agreements provided for a range of significant reform and productivity measures including the introduction of additional working hours for public servants.

Section 4.2 of Building Momentum provided for the establishment of an independent body to assess issues arising in addressing the Haddington Road Hours and to make appropriate recommendations to be applied equitably across all affected grades, groups, categories and sectors.

In this context an Independent Body chaired by Kieran Mulvey, former head of the Workplace Relations Commission, and comprising of employer, trade union representatives and independent members was established in early 2021. The Independent Body was tasked with reporting their findings by end 2021.

This was an important and complex piece of work as the commitment to review this issue was a key provision of Building Momentum.

The Independent Body recommended that:

- The working week will be restored to pre-Haddington Road Agreement levels in the majority of relevant civil and public service employments with effect from July 1 2022. However, standardised minimum full-time working week of 35 hours net will apply across the public service.

- Working hours for any grade will not be less than the level that applied prior to the HRA.

The Independent Body did not make a recommendation in respect over the overtime divisor and stated that “the Body is of the view that issues relating to the divisor used in the calculation of overtime payments should be a matter for further discussion between the parties to the Building Momentum Agreement, and does not propose a recommendation regarding overtime divisors in the context of this Report”.

Government approved the Independent Hours Body Report last April.