ONE OF THE chief negotiators of the Croke Park agreement on public sector pay and conditions has said that workers in the public sector could work longer hours to avoid pay cuts.

Kieran Mulvey, the head of the Labour Relations Commission, made the comments in response to concerns within the public sector that the new government had hammered home the point that savings were still needed as part of the terms of the Croke Park agreement.

Kieran Mulvey told RTÉ’s The Week In Politics that certain public sector programmes could be provided more efficiently and could potentially be abolished:

We potentially, probably could work longer.

We could look at the programmes we give and [ask] can we do them more effectively and efficiently in the public service.

Are there programmes that we are doing at the moment that shouldn’t be done at all?

Speaking on the same programme, the minister for public expenditure and reform Brendan Howlin said he was confident that the those who are part of the Croke Park agreement will “buy-in” to the process of achieving fiscal targets and that as a result further wage cuts will not be needed.