It was agreed that a pay increase, which was accepted in settlement of the Oireachtas secretaries' dispute, would be implemented under Clause 3.4 of the Elaboration of Clause 3 of the 1987 Agreement on Pay in the Public Service (i.e. 40 per cent with effect from 1 May 1991, 30 per cent with effect from 1 March 1992, and 30 per cent with effect from 1 September 1992). The secretarial assistants, like all groups-grades getting a pay increase under Clause 3.4, received the first instalment of their increase on 1 May 1991.
Subsequently, application of the terms of Clause 3.4 was modified, as part of a package of proposals introduced by the Government in January 1992, due to the very difficult budgetary situation faced by the Government going into 1992. Under the revised arrangements, the Government propose to increase, with effect from 1 December 1992, the pay rates of all those who have obtained special pay increases under Clause 3.4 to the levels which would have been payable under the previously agreed phasing arrangements. In January 1993, full retrospection to the due dates will be paid.