The appointment of special advisers by Government to assist Ministers and Ministers of State is provided for under section 11 of the Public Service Management Act 1997. Special adviser appointments were initially considered by my Cabinet colleagues and me at the Government meeting of 4 August last. At that meeting, the Government approved the proposed guidelines setting out the process for the appointment of special advisers to Ministers and Ministers of State of the Thirty-third Dáil, as well as the terms and cond…

I should point out that special advisers are appointed under section 11 of the Act. It would be helpful to set out what the functions are. The Act provides that a special adviser shall assist the relevant Minister by providing advice and by "monitoring, facilitating and securing the achievement of Government objectives that relate to the Department" and "performing such other functions as may be directed by the Minister" provided this does not involve the exercise of any specific powers conferred on the Minister or…

Ultimately the Government will be judged by its performance on the key issues: managing the pandemic; ultimately bringing about economic recovery; and on addressing the pre-Covid challenges. Those challenges are still very much there and will become even more acute if we do not address them. They include the housing crisis, the long-term structural reforms needed in our health service and the existential challenge of climate action. That is ultimately how we will be judged. I am the first to acknowledge that the ap…

Yes, absolutely. The Deputy has put that on the record and acknowledged that fact. I assume they provided a good service and were valuable to the Deputy. I shall now turn to the numbers. Once the process has been completed - and it has not been completed at this point, even on the numbers the Deputy has speculated on - all details will be published in an open and transparent way.

The Public Service Pay and Pension Act 2017 provides for the restoration of reductions made to public service pay and pensions by the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Acts 2010 to 2013. That process of restoration began on 1 January 2018 and is due to conclude by 1 July 2022. In that regard, on 1 October 2020, public servants will receive a 2% pay increase by way of restoration. This will complete the pay restoration for public servants earning up to €70,000 per annum. Also on 1 October, reductio…

To be clear, if we were to repeal the suite of FEMPI legislation tomorrow then certain former public servants on quite high pensions would have the pension reductions that were imposed on them reversed immediately. In addition, all very senior public and civil servants, including politicians, would have the cuts that were imposed reversed overnight. We need to deal with this issue in a managed and phased way. To return to the point made by the Deputy earlier, it is my objective to negotiate a new public service pay…

I have put on the record on a number of occasions as Minister my admiration for the work of our public servants. We now have approximately 340,000 public servants, over one third of whom work in our health service. The work they have put in over the last number of months has been immense, against huge adversity. We are doing the right thing as a Government in honouring the agreement that was entered into, even though it was entered into in much better times. We have had an enormous economic shock as a result of Cov…

I thank the Deputy for his question. The first point to note is that the 1 October adjustments to pay in the public service form part of the broader ongoing process of unwinding FEMPI reductions which was negotiated with public service trade unions and delivered through successive collective agreements, from the Lansdowne Road agreement to the current public service stability agreement. The remuneration of Members of the Oireachtas, including Ministers and other officeholders, has been examined a number of times by…

In essence what the Deputy is proposing is that the link between the pay of a Deputy and the principal officer grade in the Civil Service be broken. I am not sure what alternative system the Deputy is proposing to carve out the pay of politicians. It is up to each individual to make whatever decision he or she wishes to make. I am forgoing the increase because it is the right thing to do. I assume Deputy Boyd Barrett is doing the same. I am not sure in what manner the Deputy forgoes his increase. Does he sign a gif…

What the Deputy is saying is that politicians should decide their own pay. I do not believe that is a good system. I do not believe that, in any other walk of life, people get to decide their own pay. There is a pay increase that people can decide to either accept or reject. Apart from the 2% increase, which the Deputy says he is gifting back to the State, what I hear him say, in essence, is that he is accepting the full salary from the State but that he is deciding what to do with it. This means he has already acc…

We have had the full round of questions but I am happy to come back in.

Deputy Boyd Barrett got an extra round so, to be fair, I will take a further moment. I assume he is suggesting that legislation would be introduced to set politicians' pay, and then we would be the only body I am aware of that would have the power to, in essence, set its own pay. I hear the Deputy talk about a fund that his party uses to distribute to worthy causes, and I have no doubt they are worthy, although I have not seen the operation of that fund or how transparent it is. I assume that is fully published for…

That is a view the Deputy is perfectly entitled to hold and, as a Member of this House, he is perfectly entitled to bring forward whatever legislation he thinks is appropriate to empower the Dáil to set its own rates of pay. I do not think that would be a better system. The system we have is completely independent and beyond our direct control. We are linked to a certain grade within the Civil Service and I think that settles the issue. We are linked to that grade, irrespective of whether the rate of pay is going u…

The Deputy has characterised this once again as politicians giving themselves a pay rise. That is misleading and he knows it is misleading. It is stoking up the anger that is undoubtedly there. The reality is that the system which is in place takes it out of the hands of politicians, in essence, and I think that is the right thing to do. The Deputy might think it would be a great thing to bring in legislation that reduces politicians' pay but if we give that power to the House, it might make a different decision at…

What is it?

I thank the Deputy. He made some additional points. He wants every Deputy to be paid the average industrial wage and he is perfectly entitled to hold that policy. I do not know if he would also apply that policy to all other public servants earning as much as or more than Deputies. Perhaps that is his policy; I simply do not know. We have a system whereby we do not set our own pay and under which our pay is linked to that of a certain grade within the Civil Service. This takes our level of pay out of our direct con…

As the Deputy is aware, section 12 of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2013 obliges me to submit a written report on the operation, effectiveness and impact of FEMPI legislation to the Oireachtas before 30 June each year.  As part of those reports, I consider whether or not any of the provisions of the relevant Acts continue to be necessary having regard to the purposes of those Acts, the revenues of the State and State commitments in respect of public service pay and pensions. My report …

I thank the Deputy. It is fair to point out that the emphasis of the restoration process to date has been on low and middle-income earners within the public service. By 1 October, people earning up to €70,000 will have had their pay fully restored. That is a significant milestone. There are further measures in the FEMPI Acts, to which I have alluded. A process is set out in the legislation with regard to the unwinding of the remainder of the FEMPI provisions. These will be considered in due course. As I have highli…

In overall terms, it is very important that we manage the public service pay and pensions bill, which is of the order of €20 billion and which represents approximately one third of the State's overall current expenditure. This needs to be managed in an affordable and responsible manner. That will inform and guide my approach with what remains to be done with regard to the FEMPI legislation. Cabinet gave approval today for the drafting of legislation to remove what has become known as the FEMPI handcuffs. That is an…

I am aware of the Four Day Week campaign led by Fórsa, ICTU and other civil society groups. Many of the implications of this proposal need to be carefully considered for the entire labour force and not simply in the public service. Indeed, any movement by the public service in isolation could have serious consequences for small and medium-sized businesses struggling in the face of Covid-19. I will deal with the public services as the Deputy has asked. However, I would first like to make the point that the State is …