Vol. 556 No. 4
96 Mr. Sherlock asked the Minister for Defence if his attention has been drawn to the recent motion unanimously passed at the annual conference of PDFORRA not to recommend acceptance of the benchmarking report unless a number of issues were addressed; the steps he intends to take to address these issues; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20495/02]
The Public Service Benchmarking Body, PSBB, established under the PPF, issued its report on 1 July 2002. The body linked the implementation of the report's recommendations to public service modernisation. Under the terms of the adjustment to the PPF agreed with public service unions in December 2000, one quarter of recommended increases would be paid with effect from 1 December 2001. The PSBB recommended that payment of the balance of the increases should depend on the achievement of real and verifiable outputs from modernisation, change, adaptability and flexibility. Discussions between the employers and the unions on the implementation of the recommendations are ongoing, with particular emphasis on change, modernisation and verification. In conjunction with this process, parallel talks are being held with the Permanent Defence Force's representative associations, PDFORRA and the RACO on the implementation of the PSBB's recommendations. The Deputy will appreciate that it would be premature for the Minister to comment on the outcome of those discussions at this stage.
