REACTION:Employers group, IBEC, is urging the Government to consider the reality of the current market before it applies any recommendations of the benchmarking report on public sector pay rates, published today.
IBEC said that although it welcomed the Government’s effort to bring more reality into pay settlement in the public service over the past two years, decisions as to how and when the significant financial awards are paid must be realistic.
In a statement IBEC said: "Expenditure is already far outstripping revenue and surely nobody can argue that taxes should now be increased to meet the additional annual public sector pay cost of more than €1bn.
"The fall of 10,000 jobs in private industry in the last year represents the reality of competition and the market. Public servants, now benchmarked with the private sector, must accept the ability to pay factor.
"Exchequer returns for the first six months of 2002 will be published tomorrow by the Department of Finance. Implementation of benchmarking must be viewed against the serious scenario shown by these figures.
In a separate reaction to today’s report, Fine Gael spokesperson on Education and Science, Ms Olwyn Enright, called for immediate negotiations between the Minister for Education and teachers unions in order to avoid further disruption to the school term in September.
"The timetable for the delivery of the proposed increases will be crucial," she said. "We cannot afford to return to a situation where our schools are not operating properly due to industrial unrest. I’m urging the Minister to reach agreement with the teachers unions on this sooner rather than later."
Meanwhile Labour Party spokesperson on Finance, Mr Brendan Howlin said he welcomed the report and urged the Government to "honour its commitments" and implement the recommendations immediately.
The report, he said, "is a very necessary and substantial analysis of public sector pay and should be dealt with by the Government as soon as possible".
"The ball is now in the Government’s court," said Mr Howlin. "It must honour the commitment made in relation to the first phase of the implementation of the report, namely the payment of 25 per cent of the recommended increase immediately".