Peadar Tóibín
Question:64Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if the Implementation Body will review high pay in the public sector during its annual review consultations this year. [11220/12]
View answerTuesday, 28 February 2012
Questions (9, 10)
Aengus Ó Snodaigh
Question:73Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if the Implementation Body give priority to public servants with €35,000 or less in its annual review. [11222/12]
View answerOral answers (11 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 64 and 73 together. The implementation body established under the public service agreement 2010-14 is charged with driving the implementation of the agreement to maximum effect. The body also undertakes an annual review of the sustainable savings generated from the implementation of the agreement. The first review by the implementation body was published in June 2011.
The implementation body has no role in the review of pay rates in the public service, which is a matter reserved to me as Minister, under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act 2009, as amended. That Act, which imposed a progressive pay reduction on all public servants ranging from 5% to 30% with effect from 1 January 2010, provided that before 30 June 2011 and every year after that the Minister shall carry out a review of the operation, effectiveness and impact of the Act and lay a written report of the findings resulting from the review before each House of the Oireachtas. In the public service agreement, the Government agreed that the statutory review under the Act would take account of the sustainable savings generated from the implementation of the agreement. In the event of sufficient savings being identified in the 2011 review by the implementation body, it was agreed that priority would be given in any review of pay to public servants with annual pay rates of €35,000 or less.
In line with the requirements under the 2009 Act, I completed a review of its operation in June 2011. The report was laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas on 30 June 2011 and has been published on my Department's website. The report concluded that, having regard to the overall economic conditions, national competitiveness and Exchequer commitments in respect of public service pay, the measures put in place by the Act continue to be required. This remains the position pending a further statutory review of the Act in June next.
I am not sure if the answer to the question is "Yes" or "No". My question was to review very high pay in the public sector. I had in mind the 7,000 people who earn in excess of €100,000. In the same context, it is useful to note that 10% of families in receipt of family income supplement, the lowest paid workers in the State, are public sector workers. The Minister has identified a mechanism by which such review of very high pay could be undertaken. Will the Minister give us a clear "Yes" or "No" answer on the review?
In response to an earlier question, the Minister set out the extravagant levels of pay of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and Ministers. Those payments cannot be justified. A small section of workers, some 7,000 in the public sector, are vastly overpaid. Will the Minister review that matter and correct it under emergency legislation?
I have made it clear that this is the first Government ever to take serious proactive action to deal with hope in the public service. We reduced pay by between 5% and 30%. A 30% reduction was taken by the Taoiseach. That should be acknowledged. I also placed a pay ceiling on the public service so that no one in the Civil Service or public service should be paid more than €200,000. That has been largely implemented except where contractual obligations precluded us from implementing it. In those cases, I sought a voluntary reduction. In the semi-State sector, we introduced a ceiling of €250,000 and when considering that multiples of that sum were paid up to last year, the Deputy should acknowledge the remarkable achievements of the Government in reducing public-----
Do I take it the answer is "No"?
No matter how far we go, it is never enough for Deputy McDonald. We must ensure that we have quality people in the public service and a variety of skills. The Deputy has no doubt read the Nyberg report on the operation of the Department of Finance.
One of the deficiencies identified was that there were not enough experts and economists to operate a very complicated banking system. The Government and I are very pro-public service and want people of the highest calibre available. We do not want to pay rates to buy in from the private sector the skills the Government requires.
Some 10% of them are on family income supplement. The Minister is protecting people on outrageous salaries. The answer is clearly "No".
Does the Deputy have a question?
A Deputy
Print it off.
The Deputy is firing blanks.
I assumed Other Questions was finished. I can only read from the response of the Minister that he is quite happy for a significant number of public servants to be so poorly paid that the State has to supplement their income with family income supplement, while giving us codswallop about expertise and skills to explain salaries he knows no sane person could justify.
I ask the Deputy at least to acknowledge what we have done to date. For the first time we have put in a ceiling of €200,000. The Taoiseach is receiving 30% less in pay than his predecessor. We have reformed the expenses and car transport systems and introduced new pay ceilings across the public service of €200,000 and €250,000.
The pressure will be whether in the commercial semi-State sector we will get people of sufficient calibre to run the very companies we have been asking questions about. They will be important in driving our economic development. In terms of ensuring we have people of the highest calibre and ability working in the public sector, the Government will ensure that arrives.
The Deputy made a valid point on ensuring that everybody is paid a fair wage in this economy. That is why one of the first things we did was to restore the minimum wage, something the Deputy said was impossible. It was achieved in the first couple of months of this Government. As our economy recovers, we will try to ensure everybody has a projection of increased income. I hope we can do that on the basis of fairness to shrink the gap between those earning most and those earning least in our economy.