High fliers get wings clipped
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THE crackdown on government ministers' lavish travel expenditure, reported today, is a welcome move in the right direction. The Department of Finance's stringent new rules must be more than notional, however.
They must be enforced, honestly and openly. Let there be no more smoke and daggers where the taxpayers' dwindling dough is concerned.
Cavalier waste of scarce public finances by servants of the State is not tolerable.
It was epitomised by the FAS scandal, which led to the resignation of the training authority's then director general.
More recently, the current Ceann Comhairle has been embarrassed by revelations that he, his wife and private secretary, ran up a bill of €126,000 on foreign trips in just two years, including a six-day odyssey on the government jet to the Cannes Film Festival and the Heineken Cup final.
Too often, perks and privileges have been regarded as a natural right among the political and public service establishment.
While all the emphasis has been on minor pay cuts, such as the ministers' 10pc and pension levies, a root and branch revision of long-standing extra payments would not only lead to savings but would help dispel a perception that a privileged elite is dodging the worst rigours of recession.
The central message of the Bord Nua report was that many areas of the public service are more expensive than they should be.
Despite their resentment of a pay freeze and the levies, many of our public servants -- teachers, doctors, gardai and higher public servants -- are still among the best paid in Europe.
Among public servants generally, government ministers have the highest profile of all. In times of plenty their privileges and self-indulgences were tolerated by a public deluded by transient prosperity.
In today's changed circumstances, the sight of a ministerial Merc cruising along a bus lane, with a full-time garda driver at the wheel, is a powerful symbol of a two-tier society which is seen to be jealously guarded by a privileged minority whose ability to steer us out of crisis remains suspect at best.
The Department of Finance curtailment of public servants' profligacy while travelling abroad will hopefully be followed by a hard look at some of the many wasteful perks and privileges closer to home.
