Vol. 535 No. 1
252 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Finance if, further to the reply to Parliamentary Question No. 202 of 10 April 2001 by the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, he will outline the basis of the instructions from his Department on the payment of parity for grades in local authorities, as outlined in the reply; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11452/01]
The decision to make certain personal long service increments, LSIs, a permanent part of the pay scale structure with effect from 1 April 2000 followed discussions between my Department and the public service unions. This applied to the civil service and other relevant grades in the public service, including local authorities. Under pensions parity policy, these LSIs could be passed on to pensioners in the normal way. Accordingly, my Department issued instructions to Departments in August 2000 to give the benefit of the LSIs in question to relevant qualifying pensioners with effect from 1 April 2000.
