asked the Minister for the Public Service the estimated total public sector wage bill for 1986 and the corresponding allocations in Building on Reality 1985-87 and on this basis the amount by which spending on the wage bill will exceed the target set in the plan for the two years 1985 and 1986 taken together.
Written Answers. - Public Sector Wage Bill.
28.
I take it that the question refers to the Exchequer pay and pension bill, i.e. the cost to the Exchequer of the pay and pensions of civil servants, Defence Forces, Garda, teachers — both primary and post-primary — and all employees in the health area, together with amounts for pay in grants to non-commercial State-sponsored bodies, universities and colleges.
The allocations in the national plan for the Exchequer pay and pensions bill for the years 1985 and 1986 were £2,400 million and £2,525 million respectively. Subsequently to the publication of the national plan, the Government decided to implement the arbitrator's finding on the Civil Service 24th round claim as widely as possible throughout the public service. This resulted in an estimated excess of £84 million on the plan provision for 1985 — the provisional outturn for the Exchequer pay and pensions bill in 1985 is estimated at £2,484 million.
I recently concluded negotiations with certain public service groups which have resulted in an offer of a package of proposals covering the 25th round and other pay related matters. The 1986 cost of the package, assuming its eventual application to all groups in the Exchequer pay and pensions bill, together with the cost of special pay increases previously committed, is £68 million. Furthermore, when account is taken of both the concessions on pensions and the substantial adjustments to the published expenditure allocations which were announced in the budget, the Exchequer pay and pensions bill for 1986 is increased from £2,600 million in the published estimates to £2,652 million. This represents an increase of £127 million over the plan provisions for 1986. The total increase over the national plan allocation for 1985 and 1986 is, therefore, £211 million.