Dara Calleary: Dept must have 'one very big sofa' to be able to afford public sector pay rise
Fianna Fáil's warning the Public Expenditure Minister they will be keeping a close eye on him to ensure there is no reduction in services to fund the public servants pay deal.
Yesterday Paschal Donohoe announced he is bringing forward a pay rise for tens of thousands of public servants at a cost of €120m.
Fianna Fáil's Dara Calleary says he is not satisfied at how the minister is able to find money repeatedly that is not in the budget.
Mr Calleary said: "The hour before the Budget on the morning of the Budget, they found €100m, then they found €50m for the guards, found €120m yesterday.
"I think he, Paschal Donohoe, has one very big sofa in the Department of Public Expenditure.
"We need budget scrutiny, budget oversight. If new politics is to mean anything, it means that the parliament, the Oireachteas, actually sees the decisions in advance and gets the chance to scrutinise them."
A funding black hole appeared to emerge last night as Mr Donohoe could not pinpoint exactly where the money would come from.
The increases had been due to kick in from September but will now be introduced from April in a bid to avoid industrial unrest .
Appearing before the Budgetary Oversight Committee, Mr Donohoe was asked to give exact details of how the pay hike will be funded.
Mr Donohoe said the money will come from efficiencies and savings but said: “I am not saying that I have identified savings or efficiencies and I am not giving them to you, that is not the case.”
The accelerated pay increase was hammered out with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) during talks to tackle the anomalies presented as a result of the Garda pay deal which was recommended by the Labour Court before Christmas.
But a union source said “no one is exactly doing high fives around the place” while Tom Geraghty, general secretary of the Public Service Executive Union, described it as a “down payment”.
