THE GOVERNMENT is confident the full savings in the public service in 2011 envisaged in the Croke Park agreement will be achieved, Minister of State for Labour Affairs Dara Calleary has said.
He rejected the claim of Fine Gael finance spokesman Michael Noonan that a clause in the memorandum of understanding with the International Monetary Fund and European Union would have to be invoked later this year because of failures to achieve that target.
The clause states that, in the third quarter of 2011, starting in July, the Government will need to consider cuts in the public service pay bill if the projected savings from Croke Park are not achieved.
Mr Calleary has said that every Government department was asked to review their implementation plans for the agreement and to complete the process by the middle of January. He said a lot of changes have already happened and the key changes would be effected in the second quarter.
The Minister of State would not specify the exact target for this year other than to say the overall figure in the Government’s four-year plan is €1.2 billion.
Speaking on RTÉ yesterday, Mr Noonan argued the failure of Government to achieve those savings would be one of the legacy issues an incoming government would have to face. He said that the IMF-EU agreement contained a lot of small print that would tie the hands of a new government. He also said it was clear from the inclusion of the clause that there had been very little faith on the part of either the IMF or the EU that the Government programme to cut public sector costs would succeed.
Mr Noonan differed from Labour leader Eamon Gilmore when he said that talks on lower interest rates or burden sharing with bondholders could not be done unilaterally.
“They can only be renegotiated within the EU umbrella,” he said.
Labour deputy leader Joan Burton said the critical issue was that Croke Park remained a very important window of opportunity for public sector unions and management to achieve efficiencies.
She criticised management for being so slow to come forward with proposals and said public sector workers should not be subject to further pay cuts.
A spokesman for the Impact trade union, which represents civil servants, said the IMF deal did not stipulate there should be pay cuts in the third quarter of the year if certain conditions were not met.
He said Impact and other public service unions were pressing for the quick implementation of the Croke Park agreement which seeks savings in the public service pay bill by natural wastage and efficiencies, with a provision for no further pay cuts or redundancies if such savings are met.
“The only thing that the IMF requires the Government to do is to report on the public service finances and the public service pay bill,” he said.