Feather-bedding jobs
Sunday September 07 2008
Sir -- Some years after arriving in the north-west, I might sometimes have asked a parent how their school-leaving children were doing, to be told that 'he/she had just got the call' in hushed and reverential reply. Initially, I might have asked how they felt about that themselves, to be told with smiles of proud parental fulfilment that they 'couldn't be more pleased'. The church was sound for the future, I thought.
But, sadly, no. Having read Brendan O'Connor and Maeve Sheehan on the public service (Sunday Independent, August 24, 008) I can see why those parents were so pleased; jobs for life at an easy pace. It is nothing more than scandalous and dishonest (I would prefer to use the term 'theft of public revenue') feather-bedding.
In our only national wealth-creating sector, manufacturing and service exports (tourism apart), 20 holidays are the norm, high and low. A day a month uncertified sick-leave is investigated as malingering and eliminated; and in some public services more is taken. Annual salary increments are based on measurable performance, not service, and customer satisfaction is acknowledged as a pre-requisite of survival.
Elimination of those alone would reduce the salary costs of the public service by at least 10 per cent. And these do not take into consideration that in any organisation that has not been critically examined, there could be 10 per cent over-staffing, 10-15 per cent ineffectively designed procedures and operations, and certainly more than a 10 per cent personal productivity loss.
But will they be tackled? Forget it. Our ministers will continue to play around with inconsequentials that spin well! Many of them come from such a background -- think of an excess of ministers of state and up to seven and eight advisers and constituency workers -- and think no further than the next election.
Pat O'Brien,
Ballygawley, Co Sligo
