Bruton: pay rises possible but only with full employment

The full restoration of public service pay rates which were cut during the economic crisis is possible but only in the context of full employment, Minister for Jobs, Innovation and Reform Richard Bruton has said.

“We must always be looking at how we deliver better services. . . What productivity in education means is better outcomes for our students. Or in health, it is better outcomes for our patients.”

Talks on pay between the Government and public sector unions are due to get under way shortly, with unions seeking the full restoration of pay cuts imposed on their members since 2009.

The discussions will centre on the unwinding financial emergency legislation that has underpinned various cuts to pay and conditions over recent years.

Before Easter, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin told the Dáil that the legislation, known as Fempi, had generated savings of about €2.2 billion on the public service pay and pensions bill and "the economy could not sustain the immediate restoration of all those reductions".

Mr Bruton said on Monday: “Yes it is time to look at pay but we also have to temper that with the other pressures that we have to deliver.”

“The only way we will be able to restore pay in full is by getting people back to work.”

He said whatever pay increases were offered by the Government “has to come out of the pockets of others”.

He said the public sector was now facing a period of continuous change and productivity increases.

Mr Bruton told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that in the context of education this meant better outcomes for students and in the health service better outcomes for patients.

He said it would be very easy to undermine secure employment and that the Government remained conscious of a “fatal mistake” made by a previous administration with benchmarking.

This saw pay increases divorced from what was being delivered in the workplace. “That was a bad mistake,” Mr Bruton said.