CROKE PARK DEAL:SAVINGS MADE through public sector staff reductions over the past year will not result in pay increases for workers, the Government made clear yesterday.
Under the Croke Park agreement of this year, public sector unions have pledged to co-operate with wide-ranging reforms in return for guarantees on pay and job security.
Under the deal the Government has guaranteed there will be no further pay cuts, reductions in pensions or compulsory redundancies until 2014.
The agreement also sets out a mechanism for staff to recoup some of the pay cuts imposed over the past year from the savings to be generated from the reform programme.
However, the Minister of State with responsibility for public sector reform, Dara Calleary, said yesterday that savings generated by the reduction of about 10,000 staff on the State payroll to date would not count when calculating the amount of money available for reimbursement to workers under the agreement.
Mr Calleary was speaking at a conference yesterday in Croke Park, organised by Public Affairs Ireland, on what the Croke Park agreement means in practice for public servants.
Mr Calleary said only savings generated from the agreement itself would be considered for disbursement.
He claimed the moratorium on recruitment and the early retirement scheme had been in place before the deal was reached.
Mr Calleary also ruled out any move by the Government to front-load pay reimbursement for public service staff before verified savings were realised.
He also said that the Government would introduce legislation if necessary to remove the distinctions between different types of workers on the State payroll.
He said there were legal distinctions between civil and public service staff, and in relation to the delivery of functions and the separations of functions.
He had been informed that in some cases the legislation framework around the civil and public service was getting in the way of transformation and getting in the way of people making decisions.
Mr Calleary denied there had been delays in putting in place the public service reforms agreed under the Croke Park deal.
He said the implementation body charged with overseeing the reforms had met four times since it was set up in June, while every Government department had to submit its proposed reforms by next week. He argued that the changes outlined in the agreement were “real” and would impact on the daily work lives of staff.
He said they would also be meaningful and result in a more efficient and effective delivery of public services.
Mr Calleary said that in the context of reduced numbers and resources, the public service would “have to be reorganised and public servants will need to show greater flexibility and mobility in working across what were once traditional boundaries but which are no more”.
He said that key priorities in terms of early delivery would be the issue of redeployment to assist areas such as the Department of Social Protection and the redundancy payment sector of the Department of Enterprise.
The chairman of the implementation body for the Croke Park agreement, PJ Fitzpatrick, said there was no point denying that there was some scepticism among the public about whether the agreement could deliver.
“The only way that can be addressed is by results and by actually being able to demonstrate that the agreement is actually delivering what is says on the tin.
“I would like to think that certainly by into the first half of next year that evidence will begin to emerge.
“I’m not suggesting for one minute that everything will be achieved. This is a four-year agreement, and some of the changes required are going to take longer than nine months or 12 months even.”