Public Service Pay Commission: report’s main points

What are the essential arguments made in the study of public service remuneration?

* There is a basis for the Government and public service trade unions to enter into talks for a further collective agreement to extend the Lansdowne Road accord.

* More than 250,000 public service employees covered by the standard pre-2013 pension scheme and those covered by fast accrual schemes should contribute more towards their retirement benefits.

* Pre-2013 public sector pensions could be valued about 12-18 per cent above their private sector counterparts.

* Earnings of public servants at higher pay levels are in some cases significantly below private sector levels.

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* As of 2014, pay for public service employees at lower levels appeared to be still higher than private sector pay levels for people with similar characteristics.

* Security of tenure in a public service job has a value but no scientific evidence identified to assign to it a specific monetary value.

* In general there are no significant recruitment difficulties in the public service although there are problems in the case of some specific and specialist groups across the public service, particularly in the health sector.

* Previous flexibilities that existed around pay scales in specialist and scarce skill areas may need to be revisited.

* There is evidence that some senior-level leadership positions are increasingly finding it difficult to attract a wide candidature, which suggests there may be structural issues that need examination at these levels.

Martin Wall

Martin Wall

Martin Wall is the former Washington Correspondent of The Irish Times. He was previously industry correspondent