‘Education and health must yield bulk of savings’
The Government yesterday told unions the level of savings it requires from each sector depends on the percentage of the current public service wage bill they represent.
At sectoral briefings yesterday morning, the relevant unions for each sector were given a breakdown by Government negotiators of how much their section currently costs in terms of core pay, allowances, overtime and any other areas which cost the exchequer.
For example in education, unions were told the sector’s budget for 2012 was €8.7bn and pay and pensions equated to 80% of expenditure.
Of that, gross pay made up €4.27bn, allowances made up €515m, overtime and premia payments cost €125m and substitution cost €165m.
“At 35% of the public service pay bill, this demonstrates that the education sector has to deliver at least €350m of the required €1bn saving,” the government document said.
Health, which had a payroll cost of €7.1bn last year, has an even bigger share of the total required savings.
Its staff will have to deliver €420m in savings over the next three years, €150m of which will need to be found in 2013. Furthermore, net employment in health must fall by 2,400 over the course of the deal.
Of the remaining roughly €230m which must be found by the end of 2015 under Croke Park II, €120m will have to come from the civil service pay bill, €60m from the gardaí and €35m from the Defence Forces.
Yesterday evening unions said they intended to stay in the process, at least for now, despite an earlier threat by Irish Nurses and Midwives’ Organisation general secretary Liam Doran that the talks could break down following the briefings.
Discussions will resume in earnest early next week.
One union source said the expectation is that the talks will quickly become more focused on where exactly the savings can be achieved.
Union sources have predicted that the chances of a deal being struck are “50-50” with the head of the Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Shay Cody, describing them as the “most difficult” set of negotiations unions have ever undertaken.
