The savings generated from the 10,000 reduction in numbers on the State payroll will not count when calculating monies to be redistributed to workers under the Croke Park agreement, the Government said today.
Speaking following a conference on the agreement in Dublin, the Minister of State for Public Service Transformation Dara Calleary said the moratorium on recruitment and the early retirement and career breaks schemes were already in place before the deal was reached.
He said only savings made from efficiencies within the agreement would be considered for disbursement.
The Minister also ruled out front-loading by the Government of any reimbursement of pay cuts to public service staff before verifiable savings had been realised. He also said he would introduce legislation if necessary to remove the distinction between different types of public workers.
Separately, one of country's leading businessmen, William Slattery, head of financial services company State Street's Irish business, called for up to 30,000 public service staff to be let go under a voluntary redundancy scheme.
This would represent about 10 per cent of the entire public service payroll and save €2 billion, he said.
He said savings made under Croke Park deal should not go towards reversing public sector pay cuts, but should be used instead to reduce the Government's financial deficit.
Mr Slattery also said existing public service pension arrangements were "unaffordable" and urged a new entry-level pay grade be introduced for staff entering the public service.