Donohoe: €200m civil servant pay rise is a ‘credible pathway’

FINANCE Minister Paschal Donohoe believes the Government’s proposal on new civil service entrant salaries is a ‘credible pathway’ to addressing the controversial two-tier pay system.

The plan, which will cost in the region of €200million, will offer pay rises worth an average of €3,300 for as many as 60,000 public sector employees, including gardaí, teachers and nurses.

This pay increase, following a discussion with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, will affect newer public service workers who have been on lower pay rates since drastic post-crash cuts took effect in 2011.

Mr Donohoe said he believes the new pay levels will be introduced next March if formally accepted by the various trade unions.

‘This includes over 16,000 teachers, nearly 5,000 special needs assistants and almost 10,000 nurses,’ he said, adding that the changes would be phased in from 2019 to 2026.

Mr Donohoe said the measure was ‘formulated following what were, I understand, complex and difficult decisions’.

He added: ‘From my perspective, the outcome enables us to manage in a gradual, affordable, sustainable and fair manner, the €200million costs associated with addressing this issue.’

The Finance Minister said he had no plans to make any change to this plan and that his ‘commitments in relation to this agreement have now been met’.

These measures will be introduced on a phased basis.

It is understood that from next March, some 35,000 public sector workers who have been recruited since 2011 will benefit.

It is believed this figure will rise to 47,750 the following year.

The newly agreed measures identify two points on public servants’ pay scales – year four and year eight – which new entrant workers will skip.