Written Answers. - Exchequer Pay and Pensions Bill.
Desmond J. O'Malley
Question:
38
Mr. O'Malley
asked the
Minister for Finance
the annual percentage growth in gross public service pay in the period 1989 to 1994 inclusive; the estimated amount in each year in view of national wage agreements, incremental increases, increased numbers and other factors; the amount by which the public sector pay bill for 1994 would have been reduced if public sector pay had kept pace with increases in average industrial earnings in the private sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[15224/95]
As information relating to the increase in the Exchequer pay and pensions bill in the period from 1989 to 1994 is set out in tabular form, I propose, to circulate it in the Official Report. The following is the information requested:
|
Year
|
Total Bill
|
Total Increase
|
of which
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
General Increases
|
Special Increases
|
Increments
|
Other
|
|
£m
|
£m
|
£m
|
£m
|
£m
|
£m
|
|
1989
|
2,914
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1990
|
3,160
|
246 (8.4%)
|
70
|
99
|
23
|
54
|
|
1991
|
3,382
|
222 (7.0%)
|
135
|
110
|
25
|
-48
|
|
1992
|
3,750
|
368 (10.9%)
|
75
|
132
|
27
|
134
|
|
1993
|
4,087
|
337 (9.0%)
|
209
|
70
|
30
|
28
|
|
1994
|
4,355
|
268 (6.6%)
|
106
|
18
|
33
|
111
|
Note: The “other” category includes changes in numbers employed. It also includes variations due to, for example, variations in the timing of European Social Fund and other receipts, variations in the number of paydays in the calendar year, and the introduction of the Mayday public holiday in 1994.
As regards the increase on average industrial earnings over the period, the hypothetical exercise which the Deputy wishes carried out would not show a true picture of pay movements between the public and private sectors. Average industrial earnings relate to alimited range of private sector employment comprising operatives, maintenance workers, storekeepers, packers, cleaners and basic supervisory staff and apprentices in industry. It does not relate to managerial pay or to pay in other parts of the private sector, such as the services sector. In contrast, the public service pay figures include staff at all levels in the civil service, health services, the education sector, the Garda and the Defence Forces as well as in the non-commercial State bodies. The use of such a limited measure of private sector pay as average industrial earnings would clearly form an inadequate basis for quantifying movements in total private sector pay and for making comparisons with movements in the Exchequer pay and pensions bill.
It should also be noted that, in the period concerned, special pay awards which had been deferred under theProgramme for National Recovery fell to be implemented. To a large extent these awards represented “catching up” with pay movements in the private sector in the early to mid-1980s. During the period, reports of independent review bodies on the pay of hospital consultants, the Defence Forces and the higher public service were also implemented. The question of comparability of public service and private sector pay trends was considered by the National Economic and Social Council in its Report 96 A Strategy for Competitiveness, Growth and Employment. It recognised that “the evaluation of trends in public service pay is sensitive to the time period examined” and, following an examination of pay trends in the economy since 1975, that “wage determination mechanisms produce broadly comparable pay movements across public and private sector employment”.
