Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 15 November 2012
127. Deputy Eoghan Murphy asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if there are any public sector workers that have become entitled to and have received additional allowances since the Croke Park agreement came into force; if so, if he will give details of the reason for these allowances; and the value of same. [50687/12]
View answerAllowances are and will continue to be a normal part of the pay structure in the public service. The general position adopted by my Department in reviewing the business case of an allowance, as stated during the Review conducted this year is that allowances should only be payable in certain circumstances. These are:
- that it reflects the arduous nature or unsocial hours, including the need to remain on call at weekends and other times, clearly associated with the duties of posts, or
- work of additional value is actually received by an employer, or
- an actual cost accrues to the employee derived from their employment.
In that context, my Department has sanctioned new pay allowances since June 2010, including:
- An on-call allowance (€1,188 per week) for clinical staff at the National Virus Reference Laboratory at UCD, paid to one staff member per week to be on-call on a 24/7 basis for that week.
- An on-call allowance (€5,940 per annum) for 6 staff members in the National Ambulance Service, following the recommendation of a HIQA report that the HSE should ensure that there are formalised senior manager on call arrangements in place at all times for ambulance services, including Ambulance Control.
- An out of hours allowance was approved for Forensic Psychiatrists in order to ensure the availability of Consultant Psychiatric Support in critical emergency incidents, particularly in the context of recommendations arising from reviews of the tragic events at Abbeylara.
The detailed information sought by the Deputy in relation to the number of new beneficiaries of allowances in the wider public service in that period is not available to my Department. My Department has however published extensive information on the numbers in receipt of allowances during 2011. This does not include staff of commercial State -sponsored bodies or bodies funded by the State outside the public service since the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform is not responsible for setting the rate of pay for employees (other than the Chief Executives of the commercial semi-State bodies) outside the public service.
