No talks now on Lansdowne successor deal, Government says

The Government is adamant it will not enter into talks on a successor deal to the Lansdowne Road agreement until an independent commission on public sector pay issues its final report.

The public sector pay commission was a key element of the confidence and supply deal struck between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to allow for the formation of the minority Government.

Its remit is to examine pay levels across the public sector as well as making international comparisons. It is expected to produce its final report in the first half of next year.

Negotiations with unions on a successor deal to Lansdowne Road will not begin until then. Some Government sources hope the pay commission will help to temper demands.

In the wake of the €40 million deal offered to gardaí this week, a joint statement from Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe and Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald said the commission will "provide a valuable input about the future development of public pay policy".

Successor talks

Fianna Fáil has also said the commission must complete its work before new negotiations take place, although Dara Calleary, its public expenditure spokesman, said it is inevitable that talks on a successor to Lansdowne Road will begin earlier than planned.

He also said the “knock on” effects of the Garda pay deal were a concern. “We have heard from other public sector unions looking for similar type agreements for their members.”

Liam Doran, the general secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, highlighted the issues of "unpaid work done by nurses" and rent allowance.

The country’s largest public service union, Impact, said proposals for gardaí went beyond the Lansdowne Road deal.

"It is in the best interests of all public servants – the weakest as well as the strongest – that their pay and working conditions are negotiated collectively, and that pay restoration is achieved within a coherent agreement that applies to everyone who delivers public services," Impact's Bernard Harbor said.

Impact urged the Government to convene talks with public service unions “aimed at significantly accelerating the timetable for pay restoration and addressing any other issues that arise” from the Garda deal.

Ictu meeting

The Unite union called for an extraordinary general meeting of the public service committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to discuss the renegotiation of Lansdowne Road.

Siptu said the Labour Court recommendations for gardaí presented " opportunities and expectations among some public sector workers".

The Irish Medical Organisation’s nonconsultant hospital doctor committee is to meet Saturday to consider the implications of the Labour Court’s proposal to increase rent allowance for gardaí, which is says is very similar to a living-out allowance abolished for doctors recruited after 2012.

The IMO is to hold talks on this issue with the Department of Health next week and has not ruled out industrial action if its demands are not addressed.