Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 January 2017
743. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the reason the public service wage bill has increased to pre-recession levels, in view of the reduction in staffing numbers; if he will provide a year-on-year increase in costs and staffing numbers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1784/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Exchequer pay bill for 2017, as detailed in the recently published Revised Estimates Volume 2017, is €16.4 billion, compared with €15.6 billion for 2016. This increase will be driven primarily by recruitment of additional staff across the public service during the year - mostly in health, education and policing. There is also provision for some pay rate increases under the Lansdowne Road Agreement. The end-2016 figure for full-time equivalent public service numbers will be finalised in the coming weeks, but based on returns from the third quarter of 2016 the end-year number will be of the order of 308,000. The staff number projection for 2017 is just over 314,000, the allocation of which is broken down by Vote in the Revised Estimates Volume. It is estimated that in the order of 6/7,000 additional public servants will be recruited in 2017, with around 3,000 in the education sector, more than 1,200 in health, and 1,000 into An Garda Síochána (police recruits and civilians).
To put this in context, the Exchequer pay bill for 2017 remains less than it was a decade ago (in 2007) and it is over €1 billion less than it was in 2009 - which was the peak level. Whilst the pay bill has grown in the last number of years, this has been as a direct result of Government decisions to invest in improved and enhanced public services by recruiting more people to deliver these services. As the public finances have recovered, the Government has been in a position and has taken the opportunity to increase the number of Garda, nurses, teachers, special needs assistants, child protection officers etc., and this necessarily results in an increase in the pay bill but in a manner fully consistent with the achievement of overall budgetary targets.
