Public sector pay deal unlikely before Christmas after talks break down

Public sector pay talks have ended without a new deal, with the minister for public expenditure saying it could take “a number of weeks” before an agreement is reached.

The talks broke up last night without a conclusion, days before the current agreement expires.

Minister for public expenditure Paschal Donohoe blamed new items being raised at a “relatively late stage in the process” for creating “complex” issues in concluding talks.

But he said that the Government is still committed to “a comprehensive multi-year agreement on public pay”.

“In recognition of this commitment, I gave a firm undertaking last month to repeal remaining FEMPI legislation in an effort to generate good will, and remove any barriers to discussions which commenced three weeks ago with the expert assistance of the Workplace Relations Commission.

“It was recognised by all parties that these talks would be taking place against a challenging background and over the last few weeks, the parties have been working constructively and I understood that progress had been made on a number of issues.

“But I also know that a number of new items have been raised at a relatively late stage in the process and this has presented challenges in bringing these discussions to conclusion.

“The fact that there is a number of complex issues outstanding in these discussions is a matter for consideration and these relate to public services across government that need to be resolved.”

He said that there is still “some work to do” and he hoped “across a number of weeks we can make further progress”.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government is keen to reach an agreement with the unions on public sector pay and did not entirely rule out progress before Christmas.

“We’ve over 300,000 public servants in the state. They’re teachers, they’re nurses, they’re council workers, gardai, the Defence Forces. We believe they should get a pay increase and, of course, retired public servants would get a knock-on pay increase as well,” he said.

“So we’re keen to table an offer. It hasn’t been possible to come to an agreement as of now; we had hoped that would be possible before Christmas.

“The talks are adjourned, by the way, they’re not ended and we will be keen to table proposals as soon as possible with the view to come into an agreement, and then allowing people to ballot on it in the new year. It is the case that inflation is now falling and inflation is now coming under control. Everyone thinks inflation next year will be in the region of two to 3%.

“But we acknowledge that, at least in the last year or two, public service pay has not increased in line with inflation. So the unions will make a strong and reasonable case that that should be taken into account. We’d of course make the case that there are many years in which pay increased ahead of inflation.

“But we’re very keen to come to an agreement on this. We’ve set aside money for it next year and we hope that will still be possible before Christmas or, if not, in January.”

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said negotiations on pay “are always difficult”,

“We’re in an environment where inflation is coming down quite significantly, that’ll help,” he said.

“I was talking to Pascal (Donohoe) about it this morning, just get an update from him on, and I think there was a pause after they had a meeting yesterday, there’s a pause, but we do need to come back and make sure we get a deal in January.

“I don’t think there’ll be a deal before Christmas, I think that’s less likely. But after Christmas, for sure.”

The 19 trade unions on the Public Services Committee (PSC) of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) are due to meet on January 11 to sign-off on the wording of ballots for industrial action if there is no new deal by then.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government was keen to reach an agreement with the unions on public sector pay.

“We’ve over 300,000 public servants in the state, they’re teachers, they’re nurses, they’re council workers, gardai, the Defence Forces, we believe they should get a pay increase, and of course, retired public servants would get a knock-on pay increase as well,” he said.

“So we’re keen to table an offer, it hasn’t been possible to come to an agreement as of now, we had hoped that would be possible before Christmas.

“The talks are adjourned by the way, they’re not ended and we will be keen to table proposals as soon as possible with the view to come into an agreement, and then allowing people to ballot on it in the new year. It is the case that inflation is now falling, and inflation is now coming under control. Everyone thinks inflation next year will be in the region of 2 to 3%.

“But we acknowledge that, at least in the last year or two, public service pay has not increased in line with inflation. So the unions will make a strong and reasonable case that that should be taken into account. We’d of course make the case that there are many years in which pay increased ahead of inflation.

“But we’re very keen to come to an agreement on this. We’ve set aside money for it next year and we hope that will still be possible before Christmas or if not in January.”

Forsa general secretary Kevin Callinan, who chairs the PSC, said it was “unlikely talks will resume before Christmas, although we did express our willingness to meet over the next few days in order to conclude a deal”.

“However, it remained clear last night that the Government can’t or won’t conclude a deal in that time, and has indicated it would prefer to resume negotiations in the new year.

“There’s been no discussion so far in relation to pay. Nevertheless, we feel that if there had been a genuine push this week, it may have been possible to continue to close out the remaining issues and move on to the pay element of negotiations.

“We made it very clear that we remain available for discussions between the Christmas and New Year period, so it is very disappointing to have got to this stage with relatively little progress, and a tangible lack of enthusiasm on the part of Government to secure a successor to the current Building Momentum deal, which expires in 11 days time,” he said.