The 12 public sector worker perks that the Irish Government will not cut
U turn cave in by Brendan Howlin surrendering to the unions costs €75 million of savings
Minister Brendan Howlin has reduced the €1.5bn allowances bill for public sector workers by just a paltry €3.5m as the Government backed down on cutting perks.
This means the Government has fallen short of the €75m targeted for savings from reducing allowances.
The move was described as a ‘joke’ today.
Here are 12 of the perks:
Chester Beatty Library boxmaking allowance: The business case for retaining the allowance said it is necessary for the continuing “housing and conservation” of collections in the library in special boxes. Staff members receive up to €20 for each box.
National Museum of Ireland camera allowance: For the operation of all security equipment in the camera room on a 24 hour basis in the museum on Kildare Street. It was argued that the duties attached to this allowance do not form part of the core duties for science and arts attendants. No amount was given.
National Museum of Ireland lock up allowance: Staff members receive this allowance for the daily lock up of the Kildare Street site and security checks. It was argued that the duties do not form part of the core duties for the majority of science and arts attendants. No amount was given.
Inland fisheries eating on site allowance: This is described as compensation for lunch breaks taken away from the “designated base”. In return for this allowance, the Government receives the agreement of operatives to take their lunch break away from the base. The department is working on revising their rotas and are hoping to eliminate the payment. No amount was given.
Civil service footwear allowance: This agreement was made in 1990 when staff agreed to wear black or navy shoes along with their uniform. The cost of this allowance is €65. Only a relatively small number of staff qualify for it.
Bus allowance for CSO staff: Given to six full-time tourism enumerators at Dublin Airport with a daily rate calculated at €4.40. The Central Statistics Office said the case was “hard to justify” as it paid the Dublin Airport Authority for parking facilities at the airport. But ceasing the allowance “might cause some Labour Relations issues” and “affect the level of co-operation from enumerators.”
Delivery and footwear at chief state solictor’s office: A “special” allowance of €47.92 weekly is paid to service officers for the delivery of post before 9.15am, so that staff have received it before going to court. Four service officers also receive a €65 annual footwear allowances to attend the post office and assist in moving legal files in and at court.
Tourism Ireland directors travel allowance: The perk entitles the three staff who currently receive it to claim €4,952. As a result of the Financial Emergency legislation of January 2010 this was reduced to €4,556.
Tourism Ireland unsocial hours allowance: This is a form of overtime payment. It is most usually claimed by staff for weekend work at events.
Civil Service forklift allowance: An allowance for driving a forklift. “This duty is necessary. Very few officers across the civil service are in receipt of this,” the argument for its retention states. No amount is given.
Civil Service paperkeeper allowance: When the Paperkeeper grade was abolished, staff who worked alongside the former Paperkeeper “were unhappy about not getting the increased pay”. The duties of the former Paperkeeper included “the control of supplies and stationery”. No amount was given.
Chief state solicitor’s allowances: €5,617.16 is paid annually to a member of the office. It was argued it represents good value for money as the Office provides a legal service to the AG and Government which requires contact with staff outside normal working hours.
The climb-down on allowances, which cost the taxpayer €1.44bn, a year was today described as “an utter joke”.
And Mr Howlin was accused of performing one of the most humiliating u-turns in this Government’s term.
Opposition politicians said the Labour minister gave in to his fear of trade unions after an “intense lobbying campaign”.
Paltry savings of just €3.5m were announced by Mr Howlin, even though €75m had been promised.
Economist Dr Constantin Gurdgiev told the Herald: “It’s not a good signal. It shows the Government is heading rapidly down the slippery slope of only delivering on tax increases. That is extremely unfortunate. You cannot tax your way out of a recession.”
And Mark Fielding, chief executive of ISME, which represents small and medium businesses, said the U-turn is “an utter joke”. He said that Ireland was being turned into a “laughing stock” by not stopping such allowances.
The allowances include a series of bizarre payments for underwear, minding keys, driving forklifts and box making.
“Clearly the minister came under huge pressure from the public sector unions and he did a complete U-turn in what can only be described as a humiliating climbdown,” said Fianna Failfinance spokesman Micheal McGrath.
”I think (the issue) was far more complicated than what the minister understood it to be. It doesn’t augur well for the challenges that the Government faces over the next number of months.”
Dr Gurdgiev told the Herald the allowances are a “legacy of social partnership” but that they should be scrapped across the board.
He said abandoning the plans is “another U-turn by the Government when it comes to any sort of change”.
But Minister Howlin pointed out that public sector numbers are expected to be reduced to 292,000 by the end of this year – 2,000 over target.
He also said the overall spend on overtime has fallen by €150m since 2010.
“The Government has consistently aimed to contain or reduce the pay-related costs of delivery of services. The aim is to reduce the total cost of the Exchequer pay bill by some €3.8bn in the period from 2009 to 2015,” the minister said in a statement.
According to Mr Fielding of the Irish Small and Medium Enterprise Association, Mr Howlin “has to take the blame for leading us to believe he could bring in these cuts.”
“Giving allowances for the introduction of franking machines which stopped people from having to stick out their tongues to lick stamps, a ‘Mrs Doyle’ allowance for chaplains, a working in the dark allowance in education, Its turning it into an utter joke.
“Staff of small businesses are taking cuts left right and centre and managers are not taking salary rises. So many people are working short time and the cossetted public sector is getting ‘raised eyebrow allowances”.
But while existing State employees have been spared, young staff will face cuts.
Teachers’ representatives say they are to “look at” the legality of the decision to abolish some allowances for new entrants only.
Under plans announced by the Coalition, established teachers will retain a raft of allowances worth more than half a billion euro annually.
But new entrants will not receive any qualification allowances, which are worth about €4,500 a year to individual staff members with an honours degree in education.
It means the mainly younger teachers will earn about 20pc less than their colleagues whose pay and allowances are protected by the Croke Park Agreement.
“It is grossly unfair to single out one section. We have not been consulted. This was done behind closed doors. We are calling on Minister Howlin to be decent and fair about this,”Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) general secretary Pat King said today.
However, he did not specify what action would be taken, other than to call on Mr Howlin to reverse his decision.
Only one of 1,100 different payments will be cut from existing members of the public service after the Cabinet caved in to union opposition.
More than 100 allowances being paid currently to civil servants will be halted for new entrants to those posts.
The review of the 800 allowances was a big initiative planned by Mr Howlin for this year. He had planned to get €75m in savings this year and €150m next year – almost as much as the target for the Household Charge.
Ireland’s Credit unions ‘would be undermined’ by new legislation changes
Pictured above at the credit union year end press conference were Kieron Brennan, CEO, Irish League of Credit Unions, Mark Bailey, President, Irish League of Credit Unions, Tom Kiely, Head of Monitoring, Irish League of Credit Unions.
The chief executive of the Irish League of Credit Union, Kieran Brennan, said he was aghast? At the list of prohibitions that were being proposed.
The list of prohibitions proposed for who can act as a director of a credit union in proposed new legislation will militate against smaller credit unions, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure & Reform has been told.
A draft general scheme for the proposed new legislation includes a lengthy list of people who cannot serve as directors of a credit union, including people whose spouses, siblings, partners or children work for the credit union, including as volunteers.
The chief executive of the Irish League of Credit Union, Kieran Brennan, said he was “aghast” at the list of prohibitions that were being proposed. “Who is being allowed to serve on the board of credit unions?” he asked.
Mr Brennan said small credit unions could be undermined by some of the measures being proposed as they would require the engagement of a whole range of new volunteers. The proposed bill would prevent people who currently carry out more than one function on a volunteering basis from doing so.
He said the league also had a difficulty with the imposition of term limits for members of credit union boards because this was contrary to the democratic idea that was inherent to the credit union model.
The vice president of the World Council of Credit Unions, Michael Edwards, told the committee that as far as he was aware, no jurisdiction had such a law. He thought the issue of term limits was best dealt with by way of by-laws. Making them mandatory in law could be detrimental, he said.
Committee chairman Alex White noted that the proposed limit for an ordinary director was 9 years out of any 15 years. Mr Brennan said the rule that was being proposed did not exist for the financial institutions that had done so much damage to Ireland’s economy.
Mr Brennan said the proposed legislation would assign credit unions to different tiers of regulation depending on their asset size. However the league believed the model used in the UK and Northern Ireland was superior. That model involved assessments as to a credit unions complexity and level of risk. However he agreed that big and small credit unions needed to be treated differently.
He also suggested that a memorandum of understanding be drafted that would govern relations between the Financial Regulator and individual credit unions, particularly in the area of communication.
The committee was told the league would like to see the law enable electronic payments and the facilitation of alternative methods for credit unions to raise capital.
Mr Brennan told deputy Michael McGrath that the volunteering principle should be promoted but some of proposed changes in the bill would work against that principle.
Deputy Arthur Spring said it was high time the Central Bank was told that no credit union ever provided finance for the building of office blocks in Ballsbridge, Dublin, or for speculative property investment abroad. The credit union movement is in very good shape compared to other financial institutions. “What they are looking for here [in the bill] is way over the top,” he said.
League president Jimmy Johnson told deputy Joe Higgins that the points being made to the committee came from feedback the league had received from its member credit unions.
Targeting students for household tax charge with links to 3rd level grants a total disgrace
Fianna Fáil Senator, Paschal Mooney, has said it is deeply unfair that students in Counties Roscommon and Leitrim could face a threat to their third level grants because of the mess the Government made with the household charge.
It follows reports that Leitrim and Roscommon County Councils will follow other local authorities in demanding proof of payment for the household charge from all students applying for third level grants.
“Students who are seeking financial support for college are not homeowners themselves. Why should they be penalised because their parents can’t or won’t pay the household charge? Why should their third level education be put in jeopardy because this Government made a complete and utter mess over the roll out and collection of the household charge?
“A dangerous precedent is being set here and it must be stopped. Linking the household charge and student grants raises serious questions about what comes next. There are now reports that a raft of other state supports and entitlements will also now be linked to payment of the household charge. This could include grants to people with disabilities and social welfare supports.
“The funding for student grants and an individual’s entitlement to apply for a grant has absolutely nothing to do with the Household Charge. This controversy has caused panic for students and their families not just in Leitrim and Roscommon, but right across this region. While I understand that both councils are under severe financial pressure as a result of Minister Hogan’s heavy handed cuts to funding, it is wrong to make students pay for the Government’s mistakes.”
New collaboration link-up will enable the sharing of resources and boost cancer research in Ireland
The Irish Cancer Society has allocated €7.5 million in funding to set up a Collaborative Cancer Research Centre in Ireland. €1.5 million in funding will be allocated per year, for up to five years, under the initiative.
The centre aims to stimulate collaboration and enable sharing of resources, by linking already-established cancer research disciplines and institutions in Ireland.
It is expected the new arrangement will provide a solid foundation for better integration of cancer research and cancer care in Ireland, for the benefit of the public and patients, according to the Cancer Society.
It says it is expected the new model will provide a solid foundation for better integration of cancer research and cancer care in Ireland, for the benefit of the public and patients.
“The Irish Cancer Society believes the future of cancer research in Ireland is best served by collaboration, not only between institutions, but also between research disciplines,” said Prof John Fitzpatrick, head of research at the Society.
The Irish Cancer Society is also calling on existing cancer research groups throughout Ireland, interested in collaboration, to make a joint pre-proposal submission by October 26.
Ireland’s children pushed into obesity through parents bad shopping choices
Parents here are making simple shopping mistakes that are making their children overweight.
A child obesity expert has warned that little mistakes such as cereal choices and the selection of milk and bread has a massive impact on the waistlines of the country’s children.
Claire Kerins, dietician with Croi, the heart and stroke charity, said parents need to learn how to shop better.
“Sugary cereals are among the worse mistakes parents make. They don’t check that the cereals are high in fibre. The sugar can be forgiven as long as the fibre content is high.
Massive
“I would prefer someone eating Cheerios or Shredded Wheat than Rice Krispies or Coco Pops. There is a massive difference between Cheerios and Rice Krispies. Children eating the low-fibre cereals won’t feel full as long and so will be snacking,” Ms Kerins said.
And she warned that the problem of childhood obesity is increasing at an alarming rate.
“I’m certainly coming across childhood obesity more often. The statistics say one in five, five to 12-year-olds are obese, but through our work we would meet an awful lot of overweight parents who are concerned that their children are obese.”
Croi has now launched a pocket-size card as a guide to healthy shopping. It uses traffic- light colours to guide shoppers on healthy and unhealthy amounts of sugar, fat, fibre and salt while they are shopping.
The charity will also host a half-day seminar, Wise2Weight, on Saturday.
“There are not an awful lot of courses for people on how to shop healthily for children. There isn’t enough practical programmes to meet the need. Reading food labelling is a skill, it’s an easy one to master but it takes explaining,” she said.
According to the dietician, no child over the age of two requires full-fat milk for their calcium needs. “It’s a common mistake that children need full-fat milk. The only difference between full-fat and low-fat milk is the saturated fats and no child needs that,” she added.
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