Is "Rip Off Ireland" really "Rip Off by the Public Sector"

irish_bob

murphaph wrote: »

I'd agree with that. However, it takes time and money (neither of which we have much of) to perform said in depth examination so I'd propse an across the board cut and then start to see exactly who is paid what for what.

I believe however that the sheer innefieciency of the PS as a whole is what's killing us. Things should be centralised-one HR dept for all public servants, one payrol dept, one IT dept. I know from talking to IT people in the HSE that there are many roles which are duplicated across the old health board regions and the jobs are not exactly 'demanding' and could easily be handled by one person. This is likely to be the case for payroll and HR as well. Cutting out the duplicated admin work has to be high on the agenda.

Cutting out quangos and returning functions to the core public service has to be another. What exactly do the staff in the Dept. of Health do, for example, when the HSE is solely responsible for healthcare in Ireland? Same is about to happen with the dept. of Transport as the new National Transport Authority is created....these quangos are all intended to allow politicians a degree of removal from the problems of course

The RPA was formed because the government hadn't got the bottle to tackle the unions in CIE and just reform that dinosaur. It's a litany of wasted money.

All these blasted quangos have a heap of staff as well and a heap of (often useless) management.

increased eficency = reduced numers employed by state
reduced number of subscriptions to unions
reduced number of votes for goverment
increased employment rate for goverment to report


everything that happens in the ps is political

BornToKill

Why the obsession with librarians anyway? Who landed us in this crazy mess? How could it be possible that a one branch bank needs a further €28,000,000,000 from the taxpayer? A story in today's Independent suggests that there are changes to come. Note the average salary figure which may even be bringing up the overall public sector average since nationalisation:

Tuesday September 22 2009
Anglo Irish Bank is reportedly planning to lay off hundreds of staff as part of a major cost-cutting programme over the coming month.
Reports this morning say the bank's 1,700 employees had an average pay packet of more than €100,000 last year, including share schemes and pension contributions.
This made Anglo staff the highest-paid in the banking sector.
The Government had to nationalise the bank in January to prevent it from going out of business and must now file a restructuring plan with the EU in November in order to comply with state aid rules.

murphaph

NewDubliner wrote: »

So, the same HR department that would hire nurses would also hire power-station technicians?.

You're deliberately over-simplifying things. You know that many of the roles in any HR dept are identical to any other, hence large enterprises (like Intel Ireland) which recruit a wide array of disciplines can still manage with ONE HR dept! To use your example of the HSE (which itself has HR depts scattered around all over the place following the old health board model! and don't tell me that a nurse in one HB region is different to a nurse in another!) and the ESB.........clerical staff are all the same and can be recruited through a central HR dept. Please don't tell me a secretary in the ESB is fundamentally any different from one in the HSE. ANYWAY! Recruitment is only a small function of any HR dept. Most interviews in any recruitment process in any organisation worth it's salt are conducted by the hiring manager(s) who then indicate to HR that they see candidate x as a good bet, and whom HR then interview themselves in a (usually) non-technical capacity (rubber stamping excercise quite often). The HR people who have interviewed me down the years have NEVER had a clue about the specifics of my potential job!

NewDubliner wrote: »

If you knew anything about the diversity of IT in Irish government and the huge costs and high failure rate of similar consolidation projects abroad, you'd be more cautious in your opinion..

I understand IT is diverse. I also KNOW that many roles within (just for example) the HSE are duplicated in the different HB regions! These jobs could be consolidated almost immediately with large scale savings to the taxpayer. I am not suggesting that every single platform and app be integrated into one massive app!

NewDubliner wrote: »

You're spectacularly mis-informed.

I think it is you who is misinformed tbh.

You also didn't answer my question wrt. planning authorities so I'll answer it for you: There are 88 planning authorities in the Republic of Ireland. Do you think that is an efficient use of resources or should we consolidate them? (along with a load of county councils while we're at it).

The county councils follow an ELIZABETHAN pattern imposed hundreds of years ago! In those days a county was a large place as there were no cars and no decent roads, so it had to be manageable ON HORSEBACK! These counties have no place in modern Ireland and should be abolished and much larger regional local government and planning and development authorities should be set up.

There is sooooo much scope for streamlining and consolidation in Ireland but you seem not to want any of it???

ardmacha

While a lot of the ranting here is simple prejudice, there is scope for rationalisation. There is significant variation in the performance of councils etc. Identify the best one, put the person in charge of that in charge of the entire region etc and introduce these best practices everywhere.

However local authorities in Ireland have relatively few staff by international standards.

NewDubliner

murphaph wrote: »

You're deliberately over-simplifying things. You know that many of the roles in any HR dept are identical to any other, hence large enterprises (like Intel Ireland) which recruit a wide array of disciplines can still manage with ONE HR dept!

Ever hear of the Civil Service and Local Appointments Commission? Core Pay? LGCSB?

Your original proposal was to centralise all HR, all IT and all payroll. You went on to say that IT has no contact with staff. None of these statements show a real understanding of what the reality is.

Rationalise by all means, but don't create another PPARS.

Riskymove

more fantasy bob

irish_bob wrote: »

increased eficency = reduced numers employed by state

efficiency is actually about getting more from what you have, not less

reduced number of subscriptions to unions

they have declined in recent years anyway

reduced number of votes for goverment

still just based on your own opinion

increased employment rate for goverment to report

if thats true why is there a ban on recruitment and promotion in the PS for the last while?