CROKE PARK AGREEMENT:THE CROKE Park agreement on public service pay and reform is to be reviewed annually, the Department of Finance has said.
A spokesman for the department said the agreement, which guarantees that there will be no further pay cuts or compulsory redundancies for public service staff until 2014, would be reviewed each year, along with all other elements of the Government’s four-year plan for economic recovery.
The department confirmed that the new annual review was separate to the annual reviews of pay scheduled to get under way next spring under the terms of the agreement.
These pay reviews are also set to assess the levels of savings generated under the deal and determine whether some of the cuts introduced over the last year or so could be reversed.
The comments by the department’s spokesman followed remarks by Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan yesterday morning in which he indicated that the Croke Park deal would be reviewed next year.
"The Croke Park deal is predicated on the economic forecast of very modest growth that will take place in the next two years, and clearly, if there is now an annual review clause in the plan and the Government has agreed with that then, clearly, at the end of next year, if circumstances deteriorate very badly, the matter may come under review," Mr Lenihan said on RTÉ radio's Morning Ireland.
The Croke Park deal was agreed between the Government and trade unions last March and was formally ratified in the early summer. However, it was only in recent weeks that Government departments have prepared action plans for implementing reforms under the deal.
Earlier this month, one of the key architects of the agreement, chief executive of the Labour Relations Commission Kieran Mulvey, said it would be criticised by the public and politicians unless it produced tangible results within the next few months.
He said palpable, measurable delivery was needed under the deal – and that this needed to be significantly accelerated over the next six to 12 months.
Mr Mulvey said a number of managers in the public service had been holding back their plans for reform under the Croke Park agreement until they could see what was in the budget.
He forecast “there would be a whole new ball game” in relation to the Croke Park agreement in December and January when various parts of the public service such as health, education, the Civil Service, local authorities and quangos had to deal with potential budget reductions.
The agreement is expected to face a major test after Christmas when management in the Health Service Executive will seek to use reform measures set out under it to ensure services are maintained following the departure of possibly more than 3,000 staff under the Government’s early retirement and voluntary redundancy programme.
A number of weeks ago, Mr Lenihan told trade union leaders that the Government remained committed to the deal on the understanding that it would deliver substantial savings quickly.
KEY CLAUSE DEAL DETAILS
THE CROKE Park agreement allows the Government to back away from commitments in the deal in the event of a sudden deterioration in the economy.
The terms of the deal state that its implementation “is subject to no unforeseen budgetary deterioration”. However, Government Ministers have consistently denied that it had plans to invoke the so-called “get- out-of-jail clause” in the agreement. The agreement does not specifically state that its implementation is conditional on any particular level of economic growth being achieved.
However, it is arguable that this could be covered by the clause relating to no unforeseen budgetary deterioration.