Will public servants get their pay restored?

Fine Gael and Labour Government Ministers are "at one" in relation to their approach to pay restoration for public sector workers, according to Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin.

On his way into Cabinet on Wednesday morning he insisted he had not found recent comments by Fine Gael Ministers about increased productivity being the quid pro quo for pay rises in any way unhelpful.

That's interesting, because my colleagues Fiach Kelly and Martin Wall reported on Tuesday that the comments were being described as "not helpful" by senior figures in the Labour Party.

Both Minister for Health Leo Varadkar and Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton have said any public sector pay deal must include reforms to work practices. It's clearly the unabashed Fine Gael view.

It’s a trickier path for Labour politicians to tread.

Mr Howlin is setting about undoing the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Fempi) which underpinned two, and in some cases three, pay cuts for staff in the public service since 2009.

He will set out the Government’s stall in his forthcoming talks with trade unions.

Mr Howlin previously told the Dáil Fempi had generated savings of about €2.2 billion on the public service pay and pensions bill and warned that the economy simply could not sustain the immediate restoration of all those reductions.

The unwinding of the controversial legislation will be much more gradual, as he made clear when speaking to reporters on the steps of his Department on Wednesday morning.

“It won’t be done in one fell swoop. I’ve explained that the financial emergency measures are exactly that: they’re emergency measures that have to be undone over time, but have to be done in a way that doesn’t put at risk the very substantial economic progress that we’ve made.”

So despite our documenting of Labour grumblings that no lessons were needed from Fine Gael on productivity, Mr Howlin is insisting he enjoys the “complete support of all my Cabinet colleagues on that journey”.

Public servants hoping to get some cash back better hope it’s not anything like the journey we’re all on with Irish Water.