Room for ‘negotiation’ on €2.9bn public sector pay offer, Paschal Donohoe says

Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe's proposal would add €2.9bn to the €24bn public sector pay bill. Photo: Collins

Sarah Collins

There is room for negotiation in public sector pay talks, Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe has said.

He said it was “inconsistent” to put a cap on the amount he is prepared to offer in the talks but insisted that the €2.9bn envelope currently on the table was affordable, “very fair” and well ahead of what many in the private sector will get over the next two years.

“I do want an agreement, but I want an agreement that is affordable, and that will be fair to those in the public service, but also fair and recognise other workers in our economy as well,” he told reporters on the fringes of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“I want to continue to engage on this at the Workplace Relations Commission, and I hope that will be possible. Of course, if you’re willing to go into the Workplace Relations Commission, you have to be willing to negotiate.

“I am careful to make absolute statements at this point, because where I make absolute statements, it’s then inconsistent to say I’m going to go into the Workplace Relations Commission. if you’re going go back into the WRC it has to be on the basis of trying to find an agreement and work with people, so I am, and accept that further negotiation will be needed.”

Union leaders rejected his offer of a €2.9bn deal that would deliver 8.5pc pay rises for public employees over two and a half years.

Talks on a new wage agreement adjourned at the Workplace Relations Commission last week. An invitation to fresh negotiations has not yet been issued.

Public sector union Forsa had threatened a strike last year if a deal was not reached by the end of December.

Mr Donohoe said that he wanted to reward hardworking public servants but that he faced demands from other sectors and government departments.

“The offer that we have put on the table at €2.9bn, wage growth of 8.5pc in two-and-a-half years, is ahead of what many others in the private sector will be seeing, and that’s really on my mind.

“What’s also on my mind is the government and the country will want me to find money for lots of other things in the next year, and you can only spend each euro once.”

Mr Donohoe told RTÉ radio during the week that he did not want to dip into excess corporation tax revenues to pay for ongoing or “current” expenditure like public sector pay.