Updated 22:30
THE FINAL REPORT of the Croke Park Implementation Body, published earlier today, found that the agreement between government and unions saved €330 million in nine months.
This brings the total amount saved to €1.8 billion since the agreement came into force three years ago. It will now be succeeded by the recently-agreed Haddington Road Agreement which has come into effect this week.
In its third and final report published today, the Implementation Body said that the gross Exchequer pay bill has been reduced from €17.5 billion to €14.4 billion between 2009 and 2012 – amounting to a reduction of nearly 18 per cent.
Pay bill savings of €161 million were achieved during the review of the agreement from April to December of last year. This equates to €214 million on an annual basis.
In addition to this non-pay or efficiency savings of €169 million have been achieved, bringing total non-pay savings over the course of the deal to €847 million.
The number of staff in the public sector has fallen to 290,500 since reaching a peak of 320,000 in 2008. In the nine-month review period, 1,500 staff were shed.
The Implementation Body believes that Croke Park has continued to support the delivery of reform to work practices across the public service and said that the majority of commitments under the original action plans have been delivered.
Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin welcomed the savings and announced changes to the way the Haddington Road deal will be scrutinised to ensure it is working.
A new management-union Agreement Oversight Group is being established and will be chaired by the Labour Relations Commission, which helped thrash-out the new public service pay deal.
Howlin said: “The Haddington Road Agreement will build on, and reaffirm, many of the underlying principles of the Croke Park Agreement while giving us the scope to deliver further necessary savings of €1bn by 2016.”
First published 17:57
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