Irish Budget 2012: The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin, in the Dáil Monday afternoon made announcements on the Budget 2012 expenditure decisions including the public service pay bill which will fall by €400m next year. By the end of the year, public staff numbers will be below 300,000 and next year the Government plans to cut the size of the sector by another 6,000. He said the reduction of 37,500 or 12% of staff from 2008 numbers is significant and poses enormous challenges. Other measures include a cut in the employer's redundancy rebate to 15%. Number of medical card holders is up 500,000 since 2007 and the State pensions bill is up €1bn.