Public sector: 12% cut across the board
Sunday November 22 2009
FINANCE Minister Brian Lenihan has indicated that he will use the 11.9 per cent pay cut private sector workers have already taken as a benchmark for public sector pay cuts, the Sunday Independent has learned.
Mr Lenihan is to outline to his ministerial colleagues his intended expenditure cuts in next month's Budget at a special cabinet meeting today.
With less than three weeks to go until the Budget, Mr Lenihan and Taoiseach Brian Cowen have again insisted that the €4bn reduction in expenditure must be implemented on December 9.
Following a series of meetings with Mr Lenihan, ministers will assemble at Government Buildings to be told that cuts of between 5 and 10 per cent in expenditure budgets across all 15 departments will be sought. Today's meeting is among a number of special Budget cabinet meetings to be held before December 9.
On Friday, the CSO published a report which showed that workers in the financial sector have seen their pay cut by 11.9 per cent and sources have said Mr Lenihan would be seeking cuts of that nature for public sector workers.
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The Government has a three-pronged strategy for tackling the problem and repeated that €1.3bn savings must be found in the public service pay bill and €1bn must be cut from the social welfare budget.
There are to be €1bn in cuts in the capital expenditure programme, a move that has been heavily criticised.
Senior government sources said that today's meeting would only deal with expenditure matters while taxation policy would be discussed in the final days before the Budget's publication.
Central to Mr Lenihan's cost-cutting plans, the Government is now demanding that civil servants become more productive and warned that "fast and flexible" redeployment was on the cards.
Mr Cowen says further pain is on the way as overtime and premium payments must be cut and seniority would no longer decide who was promoted.
But the reform plan, "An Integrated Public Service: Leaner, More Agile and More Effective", presented to unions this weekend, fails to give specifics on how pay will be cut or targets set for staff reductions. Despite this, union sources said there was probably enough detail in the government plan to get them back to the table.
The reform document was given to union leaders last Friday at a meeting with Mr Cowen, but he has so far failed to get them to call off Tuesday's 24-hour stoppage.
The unions, who meet again tomorrow, are to agree to re-enter into talks but are refusing to lift the threat of further strikes.
- Daniel McConnell
Sunday Independent
