Public sector cutbacks at last?

ART6

According to the Sunday papers the government has at last woken up to the fact that the public sector in Ireland is unsustainable, since they are facing the situation where they can't pay the salaries. So Aer Lingus shares are to be sold, the ESB is to be sold, Bord Gais is to be sold --- etc etc. Is realism beginning to creep steathily into the single FF brain cell or am I expecting too much?

Oh, and what about the 400 odd quangoes Mr. Lenihan?

cyclopath2001

ART6 wrote: »

According to the Sunday papers the government has at last woken up to the fact that the public sector in Ireland is unsustainable, since they are facing the situation where they can't pay the salaries. So Aer Lingus shares are to be sold, the ESB is to be sold, Bord Gais is to be sold --- etc etc. Is realism beginning to creep steathily into the single FF brain cell or am I expecting too much?

Eircom anyone?

jmayo

ART6 wrote: »

According to the Sunday papers the government has at last woken up to the fact that the public sector in Ireland is unsustainable, since they are facing the situation where they can't pay the salaries. So Aer Lingus shares are to be sold, the ESB is to be sold, Bord Gais is to be sold --- etc etc. Is realism beginning to creep steathily into the single FF brain cell or am I expecting too much?

Oh, and what about the 400 odd quangoes Mr. Lenihan?

Selling off the prize family china is not going to help us.
BTW I use that term loosly here, but if you compare at least two of these bodies to the rest there are the best of a bad lot.

ESB generation could be sold but the transmission MUST not be sold.
Otherwise we end up with another Eircom where the transmission infrastructure is help by private company and then there are no improvements to it becuase the private company has been bought/sold/taken private etc.
As regards Aer Lingus, the only thing of real value are the slots in LHR, after the Shannon debacle we can no longer pretend they are keeping the shares for the good of the country so flog the rest to O'Leary.

None of that will really help, since we are still left with the quangoes and we are still left with the elephant in the room, the HSE.

Oh and I noticed Harney mentioned how the cutbacks in HSE will affect doctors, nurses etc. Funny no mention at all of admin staff :rolleyes:

Seen as she is talking about us all tightening our belts and taking the hit, why doesn't she suggest getting rid of the junior ministers within her own department ?
I know it won't save us billions, but as we often heard about this time of year "it is the thought that counts" :rolleyes:

cyclopath2001

jmayo wrote: »

None of that will really help, since we are still left with the quangoes and we are still left with the elephant in the room, the HSE.

There's another elephant: decentralisation, it's been driving up staff numbers and admin costs for a number of years.

ART6

jmayo wrote: »

Selling off the prize family china is not going to help us.
BTW I use that term loosly here, but if you compare at least two of these bodies to the rest there are the best of a bad lot.

ESB generation could be sold but the transmission MUST not be sold.
Otherwise we end up with another Eircom where the transmission infrastructure is help by private company and then there are no improvements to it becuase the private company has been bought/sold/taken private etc.
As regards Aer Lingus, the only thing of real value are the slots in LHR, after the Shannon debacle we can no longer pretend they are keeping the shares for the good of the country so flog the rest to O'Leary.

None of that will really help, since we are still left with the quangoes and we are still left with the elephant in the room, the HSE.

Oh and I noticed Harney mentioned how the cutbacks in HSE will affect doctors, nurses etc. Funny no mention at all of admin staff :rolleyes:

Seen as she is talking about us all tightening our belts and taking the hit, why doesn't she suggest getting rid of the junior ministers within her own department ?
I know it won't save us billions, but as we often heard about this time of year "it is the thought that counts" :rolleyes:

Indeed. The quangoes, all four hundred-odd of them. When we elect politicians and they form a government, surely we expect them to then administer the country and be answerable to us in doing so. We don't elect quangoes, which are not answerable to us, thus giving ministers a neat way of sidestepping their responsibilities. So, Mr. Cowen, abolish all the quangoes and return the responsibilities to ministers, but this time try not to simply transfer all of the staff as well. That might indeed save us a billion or three.:mad:

ednwireland

theres much to be done before selling everything off (and lets be honest whose going to buy at the moment and how much money will that raise seen share valuations recently ? what banks going to underwrite an undersubscribed flotation ?)
but i still say cut the junior ministers cut the minister salaries (by 30-40% if you think this is excessive thats what the directors in my company have done to keep us afloat - for how long i dont know) , cut the bloated admin in the public sector DO NOT cut front line staff in health. i see harney is already talking about cutting doctors and nurses overtime its really unbeleivable that they cant see where the waste is and it doesnt seem to be in the front line particularly.

DublinWriter

Bertie raised the number of ministers from about 8 to around 21 in 2006.

That's more Mercs and perks for the boys.

We have way too many politicians in this country per head than any other in Europe.

dodgyme

jmayo wrote: »

cutbacks in HSE will affect doctors, nurses etc. Funny no mention at all of admin staff:

Oh you cant get rid of the admin staff, who decides what nurses, doctors, and services get shelved if we dont have the admin staff do a pick and mix and possibly one weeks work to implement said cutbacks
then back to the flexitime and sick days.

Always hear about cuts in front line services. Where are the cuts in back line services?

MeatProduct

The complexity of our health system is reaching absurd levels. This is a fine example of a medical service destroying health.

It draws my mind back to how things used to be done in China where the family doctor was on a retainer to keep the familiy healthy, once a family member got ill then the doctor no longer got paid until health was restored. That's the type of medical system that can largely avoid so much of the greed and investment in illness that we now have.

Nick

WexfordMusings

Cuts in the public sector are happening too. 3 people in my office have finished working in the last month.

I member of staff is gouing on maternity leave in about February, her position will not be filled for the length of time she is out.

Arts have not only been cut, they have been abolished with at least 2 county councils in Ireland now having no arts department at all.

Wexford was promised the New Ross boass project to be started months ago, no sign of that.

Wexford hospital has closed 1 whole floor of hospital and its rumouored that A&E and surgical is moving to Waterford. Without Surgical, certification contraints kick in so if your in labour - tough - sit in a car for an hour and drive to Waterford - keep the babby in - squeez your legs...

Lets not forget that the much berated public sector will get hammered in housing sections in every council in the country. Revenue streams have all but vanished with the destruction of building industry as plannign levies were a massive revenue stream and the government have cut funding by over 10% to local governments.

And lets not attack all the quangoes - some of them do amazing work and the most important ones that will be more busy in recessionary times have been defunded or in some cases completly disbanded like the Equality Authority and the Money Advise Bureaus.

Lets put some of the cuts into perspective

I would much prefer my taz money to be spent on other things. Do you remember the Cervical Cancer mess-up a few weeks ago.

Well here are the figures:

Cost - €8 million

Cost per person - less than €2 euro

Estimated no. of young girls that would not get Cervical cancer per year - 40

So lets see, if i went around a room today and said to everyone can i have €2 of all of ye to potentially save 40 lives, who would say "NO".

Put another way

The government says 5c per young life saved is too expensive

silverharp

WexfordMusings wrote: »

Cuts in the public sector are happening too. 3 people in my office have finished working in the last month.

I member of staff is gouing on maternity leave in about February, her position will not be filled for the length of time she is out.

Arts have not only been cut, they have been abolished with at least 2 county councils in Ireland now having no arts department at all.

Wexford was promised the New Ross boass project to be started months ago, no sign of that.

Wexford hospital has closed 1 whole floor of hospital and its rumouored that A&E and surgical is moving to Waterford. Without Surgical, certification contraints kick in so if your in labour - tough - sit in a car for an hour and drive to Waterford - keep the babby in - squeez your legs...

Lets not forget that the much berated public sector will get hammered in housing sections in every council in the country. Revenue streams have all but vanished with the destruction of building industry as plannign levies were a massive revenue stream and the government have cut funding by over 10% to local governments.

And lets not attack all the quangoes - some of them do amazing work and the most important ones that will be more busy in recessionary times have been defunded or in some cases completly disbanded like the Equality Authority and the Money Advise Bureaus.

Lets put some of the cuts into perspective

I would much prefer my taz money to be spent on other things. Do you remember the Cervical Cancer mess-up a few weeks ago.

Well here are the figures:

Cost - €8 million

Cost per person - less than €2 euro

Estimated no. of young girls that would not get Cervical cancer per year - 40

So lets see, if i went around a room today and said to everyone can i have €2 of all of ye to potentially save 40 lives, who would say "NO".

Put another way

The government says 5c per young life saved is too expensive

Although interesting examples, all that stuff is at the margins, we are not in a situation where state agencies cutting back 2% to 3% will make any difference.The gov need to do some seious cutting, close Bord Failte , close all the agencies that push money around the regions.... If it comes down to medical screening v translation of gov publications into Irish , you choose?
If these clowns continue as business as usual we are going to get a visit from the Bond market or the IMF

ednwireland

I stil dont see the gov. leading cowen yesterday said that income was down to 2005 levels how come his wages aren't.

Wexford musings - the cuts in your office dont sound like a planned restructuring of the public sector, just allowing or laying off people where they can, which doesnt help anyone
i refer to my earlier comment
what will happen now is front line staff and services will be cut if and when there is an upturn all thise admin people will sit there and say they need more admin because we are recruiting conveniently forgetting they are doing half as much work as they were. its whats happened in the last 11 years. i always said from 97 on that these guys had no idea what they were doing and i still stand by that.