Extra pay for nurses to cost €250m
The Government is facing an additional bill of €250m should nurses and other medical staff be granted controversial additional payments awarded to gardaí by the Labour Court,
The Health Service Executive has drawn up the projected estimate, but some have said it could even be higher, which would severely undermine the health budget for 2017.
This is on top of the €50m needed to deliver the deal for garda officers.
Despite the mounting crisis, Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe has ruled out an early start to talks with unions on a successor pay deal to the Lansdowne Road Agreement.
In an interview with the Irish Examiner, Mr Donohoe said that, despite the significant pressure to begin talks on a new deal this month, this will not happen.
“There were many critics and union leaders calling for talks to begin on a successor deal in January. But I am not going to do that,” he said.
“But I am not going to begin a discussion on the long-term future of public sector pay before the Public Service Pay Commission [PSPC] concludes it work. If I was to begin that in January there would be no point in the PSPC.”
Mr Donohoe insisted it was not reasonable or feasible to ask the commission to shorten the timeframe in which it is operating, as to do so would be to jeopardise its work.
“We said we would ask the commission to produce a report by quarter two of 2017. It is not realistic to do that job any quicker or any sooner than that,” said Mr Donohoe.
“It could be May as opposed to June, but they will not be able to do it by January if I was to ask them to do their work expeditiously but not at the cost of that work or at the integrity of that work.”
Mr Donohoe revealed that he is opening talks with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions this month to decide what impact the Labour Court judgement will have on the public service as a whole.
“An anomaly has been created by what has happened here,” he said. “We will conclude discussions with ICTU and the PSPC by the end of January. There are consequences for the Labour Court recommendations for those inside Lansdowne Road and under article 6 of the agreement there is a procedure for recognising anomalies in it.”
He said successor talks will be mostly completed during the second half of this year.
“If there were any consequences from any successor deal that would have to be taken account of in 2018,” said Mr Donohoe. “That all has to be done in time for the estimates process for the budget, which means that all has to be done by October.”
Mr Donohoe revealed the level of surprise he and his fellow Cabinet ministers felt at the Labour Court’s decision, saying it caused “profound difficulties” for them.
“I found myself in a situation the day after the Labour Court, that had we not accepted its recommendation it would have caused profound difficulties for the future of industrial relations in this state,” he said.
“If the Government refused to be bound by the Labour Court, and its recommendations, we would have undermined completely the space within which we organise industrial relations in this State.”
Importantly, Mr Donohoe said the recent Horgan report into garda pay — which showed rank and file officers’ total remuneration per year is above €100,000 — will be a key component of the pending discussions about future pay rises.
“I consider the Horgan report is an important element in the discussions we will have. But what will set the context more broadly will be the pay commission,” he said.
He warned that if other unions were to follow down the road of the Garda Síochána, “there would be profound consequences for the delivery of public services in this state”.
