Public service pay has been governed by a system of collective agreements since the Croke Park Agreement was negotiated in 2010. These multi-year agreements have contributed to stability within our economy by facilitating the delivery of quality public services, ongoing reforms and the maintenance of industrial peace in the public service.
The value of public service agreements to the Government and the taxpayer is ensuring that pay costs are managed in a sustainable and orderly way and in a climate of industrial peace.
Successive public service agreements, including the current PSA 2024–2026, have facilitated and enabled the implementation of reforms to improve the delivery of public services, including those aimed at modernising the public service and performance management frameworks.
The current agreement, the Public Service Agreement (PSA) 2024 – 2026 is a two and half year agreement. The Agreement provides for 9.25% in general pay increases as well as a provision for a Local Bargaining mechanism equivalent to 1% of the basic pay cost.
The PSA runs to end-June 2026, with a final pay increase of 1% for all public servants due to take effect on 1 June 2026. The priority remains the delivery of all elements of the Agreement, including local bargaining. Following this the focus of the parties would be expected to turn to the consideration of a successor agreement.
As with previous agreements, any new agreement would be expected to consider both pay and reform elements, however, it would not be appropriate at this point to comment as to what the content of those discussions might be.
