Missing the point.

But sure what do we need frontline emergency staff for? Dont we just have admin workers to do our jobs for us seeing as the rest of the country feel we do nothing and are underworked anyway!

Yeah that does kinda does kinda makes sense ….. NOT ! Jobsbridge Gardai, Fire brigade, Defence Forces, Nurses, Teachers, Prison Officers ….. Maybe some office work in the job bridge scheme may work ?

Censored that might work if I was a secretary or clerical but as a professional working in the frontline of the health service that will not improve productivity I can only see one client at a time and deal with one crisis at a time reduced staff means less service for the public and escalated risks for all you obviously know nothing about life and death issues and serving the public

Social services was what I was talking about. Clearly I’m not talking about Gardai etc. Although there’s no reason why it wouldn’t work with nurses. They would be fully qualified, yet unable to find work, why would they turn down the opportunity to get hospital work? I was mainly referring to welfare office, clerks, receptionists, and the like.

Val Kearney
You said Public Servants ….. You actually meant Civil Servants. Good as we are as public servants I have still to meet one blessed with the power of mind reading ….

Where there’s a will, there’s a way Orla.

Hear hear well said

The cheek of us having jobs and paying taxes!
The cheek of us going for permanent public sector jobs over highly paid private sector jobs!

The elephant in the room here Ciara is that the jobs are not underpaid or even low paid. The have been very well paid for the last decade for anyone that got before 2 years ago you were earning far more than the average factory worker, retail staff, call centre staff and admin staff in any other sector so the pay game is a blooper for you.

The pay is the main reason we cant recruit new young staff in as its all tied up at the higher grades.

Funny how things change private sector a couple of years ago wouldn’t piss on the public sector wages, with the bonuses, company cars, company expense cards to name but a few an on the other hand crap wages, unsociable working hours etc just funny how things change, may only be a leaving cert but seems to have been a smart choice by them now?

A public service job is a crap job to have during good times, but a good job to have during bad times…so someone said

I think it’s probably a crap job at any time :D

Not only do you get to work with some pretty “entitled” and disgruntled people. You also have to work for the “government” – one of the worst employers in the country. From speaking with friends who work in the public sector, the conditions are pretty miserable, thanks in part to the unions. A bit of reform would do them a power of good.

Its not really that funny Aarum tbh, The Public sector jobs were always seen as modest pay jobs with a secure and pensionable income. Private sector employment was for people who wanted to go out an earn money and have the facility to progress through hard work. However the last decade has turned this on its head literally. During the good times the Public sector did nothing but push to match / increase and surpass the wages that were being made in other industries (totally unwarranted) might i add, as we received no increase in efficiencies or improvement in services during this major period of increasing salaries and increasing recruitment.

So where is the big hurrah then? There isnt one.. we are no left with an under performing, overly staffed (not all areas) highly paid and higly pensioned pretty secure and untouchable workforce putting a large drain on the countrys finances and the return on this is certainly not visible to the average man.

Daily we can only read articles about crime stats and health care issues. I dont understand how people can be so smug as to say i made the smart choice to be in a sector which so obviously needs major reform and certainly needs a back boned government to do so.

Another reason we have the recruitment freeze on getting younger more educated and dynamic people into the sector is because we cant afford it. The bulk of the money is being distributed to long timers, and tbh i believe ‘experience’ is being thrown out as an excuse to keep alot of these people. Dont get me wrong im sure there are certainly hard workers there but to be fair the lack of visibility in the sector is laughable.

Counties and Companies survive on being dynamic and forward thinking. We are being strangled to death….

i see you helpfully left out admin and clerical staff out there…. No come back to me with a comparison

That shoud read “Why so young”

the average age is 45 which means there is a quite a number aged 50 to 60 (and an equivalent number aged 35 to 45) so if we don’t start planning recruitment now then in 10 years time all the experienced staff will be retired, leaving chaos behind as a large number of green recruits are suddenly hired.

Nope. Average age is 45. Also, half of the civil service are due to retire in 5 to 10 years.

No reason to suppose that half of the workers are also of average age.

ok so what is the retirement age? Lets just say it is 65, that would mean that half of the civil servants are between 55 to 60?

The article said average so of course that means ther are much older and also younger civil servants. Retirement age is still 65 except that the government encouraged people to leave earlier on a scheme designed to reduce numbers of staff this finished 28 feb. it is absolutely true that people are often carrying the work of three people. My boss retired and aa other person below me left and I have to cover their jobs as well as my own. I work most days until at least nine at night from nine in the morning and often at week ends to cover the work and then have to listen to people talking about the cushy public service. This cutting of frontline staff particularly in the health sector is dangerous

If times get too tough in the civil service there’s always the option tens of thousands of private sector workers have been forced to take and emigrate to more efficiently run nations.
http://www.workpermit.com/news/2011-11-14/europe/irish-emigration-levels-highest-since-nineteenth-century.htm

The minimum age of retirement is 60 and the max is 65, but 66 or higher for new recruits

“People retired/left and I have to do their work as well as my own”

Look, in the real world this is called productivity. Buy some computers/telephones and stuff.

Would that 50% be a number you just completely made up?

gosh Robert are you suggesting people just make up numbers and post them on the journal next thing you’ll be suggesting that some people over react and post hysterical opinions

50% is obviously made up. The real number is more like 99.99999%

These the same civil servants that advised the government in their spending and on such well thought out projects like electronic voting machines?

The other way of looking at this that you have one person doing the work of three civil servants. A subtle but informative difference.

You have no idea, keep your silly comments.

Six months full pay when supposedly sick!! It’s amazing how a tonic like losing half your wages cures all! And people wonder why the country’s banjaxed! I was on to the tax office this morning to find how a claim I made two months ago was progressing, only to be told that the person dealing with my claim has been out sick for the last three weeks! I’m thinking now that he or she will be back in work sometime in October! With a bit of luck my claim should be sorted before Christmas! Happy days!!

Doing the work of 2 or 3 other public servants…so that’s still only 50-75% the workload of a single private sector employee….get them doing the work of 4.

Yeah those pesky nurses doing the work of 2 or 3 nurses. Off with their heads!

Im going to be brutal with you Orla, the only people i know that are highly skilled graduates working in that sector are Doctors and Nurses. There isnt anyone else i know that didnt either start after their inter cert or come in after leaving cert level. So please excuse me if i fail to believe that the positions im refering to are highly skilled or require advanced expertise.

We need less red tape departments are more front line services. Its a bloody mess. And anyone i know working in it would tell you the same thing.

I have never known anyone in the public sector only have their junior cert even the lowest grade clerical officers have at least their leaving cert and have had to complete a competition exam with only the highest placed individuals getting the job. The clerical jobs and lower grades are so badly paid that many qualify for the family income supplement. Most professional grades like myself have completed At least five years third level which we paid for ourselves before free fees