While formalities at Leinster House descended into chaos this week, the new Government parties had nevertheless signed off an agreed Programme for Government ahead of the commencement of the new Dáil term.
The document provides a mixture of aspiration and commitments alongside specific measures on a wide range of issues. These include the management of public finances and expenditure, public service reform, digitalisation, housing, infrastructure and health.
On public service delivery and reform, the Programme for Government acknowledges the “tremendous work across the country” of the “large public and civil service,” and commits to improving public services through “investment, culture and productivity,” in addition to ‘heavy’ investment in modern technologies and digitalisation.
The current public sector pay agreement continues to 30th June 2026, and the new Government has committed to negotiating a new pay deal to succeed it, and to negotiate a deal that “recognises the central contribution of workers in the delivery of better public services”, with the usual caveat of linking the deal to a ‘reform agenda’.
Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan said the new administration was facing into a challenging term, not least due to so much international uncertainty: “I think that’s why it’s important that the incoming Government continues to work with public service unions as part of its efforts to maintain stability and progress in an uncertain world.”
“But that can only thrive in an environment of mutual respect, and any reform – in the context of a successor to the current public service pay deal – must be negotiated,” he said.
Survey
Kevin added: “Ahead of last year’s election, more than 20,000 Fórsa members took part in a union survey that captured their priorities for the next Government.”
“These include the need for investment in housing, infrastructure and quality public services, in addition to cost of living measures. Almost 85% of our respondents said pay improvement was a key issue for them in deciding who to vote for,” he said.
Despite commitments included in the government parties’ manifestos, the Programme for Government omits any reference to a commitment to pay parity with public health staff for health workers in the community and voluntary sector (Sections 39, 56 and 10 organisations).
The matter nevertheless remains an ongoing issue for health unions, and the Programme for Government commits to working with the voluntary sector “through industrial relations mechanisms…to progress pay issues that affect the delivery of disability services and the long-term viability of organisations within the sector”.
Kevin commented: “There’s still an enormous amount of work to do to resolve the challenges, for example, of health service delivery, where we are currently in dispute on employment numbers, and where we are still working to resolve the pay disparity in community and voluntary sector health services, where recruitment and retention challenges persist,” he said.
The programme also envisages a review of the Civil Service Blended Working Policy Framework to “consider how the implementation of this approach best delivers public services and supports the productivity of the public sector.”
Kevin said remote working is now a well-established fact of working life for many across the public and civil service, while productivity remains strong: “Remote working plays a very significant role in helping workers to strike a decent balance between work and home responsibilities, including caregiving, in addition to helping ease pressure on transport infrastructure and emissions reduction.”
“While the new US administration has issued an executive order forcing federal workers back to full-time office attendance – and there have been attempts to make remote/hybrid working a ‘culture war’ issue in the UK – the debate in Ireland has, so far, been more measured, and the experience has been significantly beneficial for Irish society, so there is no need for an arbitrary full-time return to the office in those circumstances,” he said.
The Programme for Government document is available here.
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