The majority of the savings come from a reduction in staff numbers by not replacing those who leave the system. Is the plan to just keep reducing staff numbers to make savings? Ultimately I don’t see how this agreement can survive. We need to focus on productivity, efficiency and wage levels. The current system doesn’t target staffing levels in specific areas. We have too many staff in many areas and not enough in others.

A good start. The agreement should save the taxpayer over 5 Billion during its lifetime with continual savings and improvements in efficiency on an ongoing basis after that.

FF/FFg must be so proud of themselves, having supported the Croke park deal so far. They have done a great job encouraging people to retire early and then get rehired on contract.

Any independent report sponsored by a Government source, supporting spurious claims like this drive me nuts with frustration.
One that springs to mind immediately to illustrate this example is the one Bertie sponsored in relation to removing the Toll Bridges on the M50. For years they got ‘independent’ reports to support their claims that removing the tolls would have zero impact on the movement of cars on the M50.
However, after they got enough kicking by the general public, they eventually gave in, and removed the tolls. For anyone old enough to remember what the M50 was like prior to the tolls and immediately after the tolls were lifted will be able to see what a load of trip these so called independent reports tell you.

FF/FFg are one and the same. They will always get Yes men to support any idea they want, in order to drive through any change they want or maintain the status quo where it suits them.

In this case, we know that the Government handed out the equivalent of 2 years salaries in lump sums to retiring employees as golden handshakes, tax free, and gave them pensions that anyone in the private sector could only dream about. How within 12 months of spending all this money, they can claim they have saved 1 billion euro defies belief. They are liars.
They dont want to change the pay system, as this would impact their own salaries… Kenny and Gilmore both profit to the tune of over 500,000 per year from maintaining the status quo.
All the previous ministers including Harney, McDowell, Mcreavy, Bruton, Ahearne, Cowen etc are all living in luxury at our expense. Reform Croke Park. Reduce all pensions over 60k to 60k. No one in this country has done enough to get pensions worth more than that.
But FFg/Labour/FF don’t want to do ANYTHING that would endanger their gravy train. Thats why we the tax payer will have spent millions on stupid reports that back up what the Government want to hear.

William what an error – you haven’t nurse in the family whose had her pay cut down by 10%. Then a pension cut by 15% Then another PRD of 10%. Then the Universal social charge on top of that. To make it back up – overtime is none existent and now the allowances for working anti-social days and hours is been reviewed as well. I take it you still enjoy your Christmas Day, Bank Holidays, and Weekends with friends and family!

Re:”€250 million in pay increases were given this year in the depths of a recession!”. Just a small point, that’s not actually true.

How can you make savings if a batch of people retire,they are simply moving from one form of payment to another both from the public purse!
These should not be counted as savings,total nonsense

Well,true……leaving aside the fact that a public service retirement fund does not reflect the true cost of providing the retiree the pension payment ,my point is that the majority of these people would have being retiring anyway and unlike private pensions these pensions are paid from current government expenditure which means it isn’t a real saving ie the 950million “saving” does not allow for the cost of paying these pensions which most definitely would reduce this figure
Also why are we still allowing people to retire in this state at 50yrs old . A retired soldier could have worked for 30yrs and retire and could live for another 40yrs so he would be retired for longer than he ever worked……. The whole public service retirement fund is a giant ponzi scheme…..but this government hasn’t the balls to tackle it

Think your reforms would have much more bite if you cut the over-weight, over-sized, over-protected pensions and expenses you and your colleagues get. I make no shame of saying I’m orgainsing ‘sli nios fearr’ to make reforms the likes of which you’ll never get your head around!

I repeat the public service did not cause the recession and therefore are not the solution to it. Easy targets

A hell of a lot more would have been saved in public sector spending if the agreement wasn’t in place. 80% of expenditure in Dept of Education is pay & pensions, and 44c in every Euro spend in the “health” service goes on Admin. Under this deal that protects a sector of society unfairly, €250 million in pay increases were given this year in the depths of a recession!

We will get no deal from Europe on our bank debt as long as the civil servants who are trying to negoiate it by saying we have no money, continue to get paid more than their German counter-parts and as long as we refuse to tax the wealthly in this country.

The Croke Park deal is the public sector tool to insolate themselves from the recession and ride it out while the rest of us suffer. A friend of mine in the civil service (it’s not his fault that the system is wrong) told me that “they have to pay the civil servant well, sure who else is going to spend in the economy”. Removed from reality or what?

920m saved, great! Now remind us once again what the annual public spending deficit is at this stage?

Great savings….. Theft crime highest it’s ever been and people left on trollies for hours and hours, job well done so?! idiots

And for the record, I am not advocating further cuts to those within the public sector who earn less than or around the average industrial salary. However, I do believe that there are a whole cohort within the sector who have been practically immune from the recession because cuts have been passed on to those with little or no voice of opposition….yet!

Sara think ur mixing martin s comment up with Williams . Of course we have had pay cuts my cheques are less than half they were in 2007.william not got a clue , we still have 2007 bills . Really get annoyed with people talkin nonsense.

@ Sara, can you please direct me to the section in the 2009 Budget that states that existing public sector salaries are to be cut by 10%. I know new entrants were cut by 10% but I made that point explicitly. FYI page. 4 “Public Sector pay will not be cut” http://www.inmo.ie/_INO/Documents/Budget_Summary_Public_Sector_corn_market%2012-10.pdf

@ Too Trueleft, if public sector workers suffered a pay cut of 15%, then is the Croke Park Agreement not defunct? As I understand it, the CPA protected public sector pay.

@ Martin, no I don’t have a nurse in my family but I have a father who has had his pay cut, has seen no increase in pay since the financial crisis started and whose job is never secure. The same goes for all my siblings. What compensation do you make for the fact that despite the decrease in earnings your wife/sister (?) has endured, she does not face the threat of losing her job?

Let’s get one thing clear, public sector workers have not had a pay cut. To claim that you have already had a 15% pay cut because of changes to pension arrangements (arrangements that are incredibly generous to begin with) is simply wrong. Public sector workers have seen no reductions in their base salary, their allowances or their increments.

The Croke Park deal negotiated by the various unions left new entrants to the public sector the sole target for pay cuts. The difference in pay between a new entrant and a existing public servant is vast and in terms of cohesiveness within the public sector, it is simply not sustainable in the long-term. Why would one worker do the exact same job as another for a lot less money simply because one was lucky enough to start a year earlier?

The Croke Park deal absolutely guarantees future industrial action to reinstate parity of pay. A fragmented public sector is in no-ones interest.

@Gavin you should investigate how much off these savings should be off set against the cost of taking in extra agency staff especially in the health system. while there is ban on recruitment there is no ban on agency workers