Taoiseach Brian Cowen said the pay deal agreement agreed between the Government and unions this morning will provide "confidence and stability" in the public service to meet both current and future challenges.
In a statement, Mr Cowen said both sides had made “very significant efforts” during complex negotiations and that he felt the deal would result in “greater efficiency, better services for the citizen and more satisfactory working conditions for public servants".
He said: “We now have an agreed, shared vision for transformation in all sectors of the public service and an agreed path on how it is to be achieved.
“This agreement will ensure that together we can create a public service of which we can be proud and a public service which we can afford.”
Later the Taoiseach described the deal as “realistic and very fair outcome for all of the considerations concerned”.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One Mr Cowen said: "What people are getting here from the Government is a commitment not to look the pay side of the equation for the immediate future. We will look at all the non-pay issues that we can deal with so we can have a good, affordable public service, fit-for-purpose and doing the job."
Minister for State with responsibility for Public Service Transformation Dara Calleary said the deal provided a significant programme of reform, the details of which would become apparent in the next few days.
The agreement included provisions for redeployment across the public service and a commitment to unions that there will be no pay reductions until 2014, as well as an annual review of pay, he said.
Mr Calleary said redeployment would allow the Government redeploy public servants to help alleviate demand in certain sectors. This would help make the public service “much more effective and much more responsive to demand”.
He also said the agreement would use a new implementation body to review the extent of savings generated by the transformation programme and determine if there was scope for a reimbursement of pay cuts.
He said while there was no guarantee pay cuts would be reimbursed, this could only happen if savings made were independently verified by this body. “A process will be agreed by the implementation body with a particular emphasis on the lower paid.”
However, he added that as the programme becomes apparent “public savings will be obvious.”
Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore said the deal had the potential to “significantly reform public services and lead to much improved services”.
He welcomed the commitment that priority for reimbursement be given to lower paid workers.
Mr Gilmore said: “The climate for agreement has not been helped by the continued demonisation by some of decent hard-working public servants, many of whom were on low pay, even before the cuts of the past year.
“Despite this I hope that the draft agreement will now be considered by trade union members in a calm and rational way, taking into consideration all factors, including the need for public sector reform, the state of the national finances, the level of unemployment and conditions in the private sector.”
