Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 March 2013
153. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform following his Department's review of public sector allowances in 2011, if he will provide a list of the allowances currently under review; if he will provide, in tabular form, a list of the allowances to be withdrawn accompanied by the date on which he intends to withdraw each allowance. [15716/13]
View answer154. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if any of the 88 public allowances identified in September 2012 for abolition have been withdrawn; if so, if he will provide a list of the allowances; and if the use of a dedicated fast track arbitration process has been used for all such cases. [15717/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 153 and 154 together.
Departments were notified by my Department on 28 September 2012 of details of the Government decision in relation to the outcome of the Review of Public Sector Allowances and Premium Pay. Copies of these letters, detailing allowances to be abolished for new beneficiaries and allowances to be approved for new beneficiaries but subject to review and/or modification are publicly available on my Departments website at www.per.gov.ie . Extensive material relating to the review, including a spreadsheet summarising statistics and the outcome of each allowance reviewed are also published on the website.
Approval for payment of an allowance to a new beneficiary pending the outcome of the review was withdrawn from 31 January 2012 and was not restored in the case where the review found that there is no business case for its payment to new beneficiaries.
Following the review, sectoral management have been instructed to engage immediately with staff interests with a view to securing their early agreement to the elimination of those Departmental allowances payable to current beneficiaries, where no business case exists to pay those allowances to new beneficiaries, with a list identified for consideration among the allowances they should prioritise for early elimination. In addition, Departments have been asked to identify other allowances, including legacy allowances, for elimination from current beneficiaries. Departments are now directly engaging with staff representatives on the allowances specific to their areas. In cases where no agreement can be reached, the timebound mechanism for dispute resolution through in the existing industrial relations systems by the Public Sector Agreement 2010-2014, is available.
The Labour Relations Commission proposals in relation to the new Public Service Agreement contain a provision that there will be full co-operation from all parties with the follow-up measures to be undertaken by sectoral management related to the Review of Allowances.
