IMPACT general secretary Shay Cody addressed a conference organised by Public Affairs Ireland (PAI) last week, and identified income recovery “across the workforce”, the unwinding of pay cuts under emergency legislation and reductions in pension deductions from current “untenable” levels, as key trade union goals for 2015.

Shay said it was not credible to have an indefinite financial emergency, as applies under current Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (FEMPI) legislation. The FEMPI laws were first introduced in order to cut the public service pay bill in 2009.

IMPACT welcomed the change to the FEMPI Act announced in October, as the Government announced its intention to remove Section 2B of the most recent Act, introduced as a limited contingency measure in 2013.

The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin, has indicated his intention to begin the process of dismantling the legislation. He told the Dáil he would “open the books in the same open way as I did in the negotiations for Haddington Road and come to an orderly and, I hope, fair mechanism for unwinding the emergency provisions that were necessitated by the economic collapse”.

The minister has indicated his intention to hold negotiations with unions next year on the start of public service pay restoration.