The cost of the Public Service Stability Agreement 2018 – 2020 (PSSA) was estimated at €887m for the period from 2018 to 2020; €178m in 2018, €370m in 2019 and €339m for 2020.
In addition, the final year of the Lansdowne Road Agreement 2016 – 2018 (LRA) and the first year of the PSSA ran concurrently in 2018 with an estimated cost of the LRA in 2018 of €287m.
In addition a number of other costs have arisen in respect of the PSSA including the following:
New Entrants under the PSSA
Under section 4 of the PSSA there was a commitment to examine remaining salary scale issues in respect of Post 2011 recruits at entry grades. In September 2018 agreement was reached with the Public Services Committee of ICTU. Costs associated with the agreement are estimated at €27m in 2019 and €46.6m in 2020
Public Service Pay Commission Recommendations under the PSSA
Under Section 3 of the Public Service Stability Agreement, the Public Service Pay Commission was tasked with examining certain areas of identified recruitment and retention difficulties. In fulfilment of this mandate the PSPC made a recommendation with a full year cost of approximately €20m in respect of Nurses and Midwives and a further recommendation with a full year cost of approximately €10m in respect of the Defence Forces.
Labour Court Recommendations under the PSSA
Within the Public Service Stability Agreement the Labour Court issued recommendations on both the Nursing and Midwifery dispute and Health Support Grade Dispute. Costs associated with these recommendations are currently being examined through the estimates process.
Pay Bill Estimates by Vote
The breakdown of the paybill by Vote for 2018 and 2019 can be accessed on the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform Databank at http://databank.per.gov.ie/ and on budget documents accessible at http://www.budget.gov.ie . Increases in the pay bill are a result of both the pay agreements mentioned above and additional recruitment in the public service (public sector employee numbers have increased 4.6% from 320,758 in Q4 2017 to 335,593 in Q2 2019)
A break out by Vote for 2020, taking account of all pay factors, will be published as part of Budget 2020.