Colm McCarthy always seems to be so full of distain for everyone when he talks about anything. Congratulations to everyone that managed to listen long enough to hear him speak on Morning Ireland.

Sean – surely the point of all this is that services should get better and be delivered more efficiently, not just that they won’t get any worse? And I’m pretty sure that there is a general ban on promotion as well as recruitment so there won’t be any opportunity for those down the line to advance.

McCarthy is treated with such reverence by the mainstream media RTE Irish Times indo. Yet his prescriptions for the economy, which have been followed by 2 governments, have not worked. He is always described as “UCD economist” yet does anyone ever ask how many hours he teaches over the year! He is also described as “a top economist” what does that mean? It means you are expressing the views that back up medias agenda. He has been spouting the same nonsense since 2008. Remember take the pain upfront.Has it worked? No as many warned it wouldn’t yet instead of hiding in embarrassment he is rolled out again and again to offer more advice.

The 29 Feb deadline is mostly of benefit to those PS workers at the top of the payscale and who will retire in a couple of years anyway. Many are occupying management or supervisory positions and therefore are not frontline. An alternative approach would be to offer a redundancy programme to all PSW. 1 and a half years salary taxfree. Average payment would be approx €40,000. I reckon thousands of newly recruited but fed up people would take the bait and leave. It would save the State a fortune in the long run but could devastate frontline services. There is no easy way to cut staff numbers without affecting services, but the present model is the most ineffective and most expensive model possible.

McCarthy made alot of recommendations to Government for cuts.Quangos were singled out,but they would have hurt politicians buddies so they went after other options.Attack the ordinary person instead first but always blame McCarty when they do it.Gotta love the courage of these guys.

He is 100% correct in what he is saying.

Any normal company, when faced with budget problems, and the prospects of needing to reduce staff numbers, would go about this reduction in a focused way, so that company comes out of the reduction in numbers in as strong a position as possible.

The way that the government is reducing numbers through voluntary means is ridiculous. Highly trained people, with necessary skills are walking away and not being replaced, and at the end of the exercise we will still be left with those people who should have been straight out made redundant. This approach is arguably as stupid a decision as the decision to decentralise.

Reform ? what reform.

I think it’s about time McCarthy resigned :)

not trying to be smart but is mccarthy a closet fianna fail man.

McCarthy has an opinion on everything and a solution to nothing. He’s the biggest whinger in Ireland.

His policy on debt correction mirrors what the government is doing, slash and burn, so what’s his problem?

Its a bit chicken licken like, the sky is going to fall in when all these people leave. It won’t…! Remeber the HSE “exit scheme” last year. All those people left and relatively speaking I don’t think anything got significantly worse than it was before hand, I am open to correction if someone can produce credible evidence to the contrary. So we have a whole load of people leaving at the end of teh month many from senior management. It generates opportunities for promotion and advancement for people and once it it is done on ability rather than “well its his/her turn” then all the better maybe we might see some new ideas. On March 1st the sky is not going to fall in!

Like him or loath him, McCarthy is 100% correct on this issue.

Come next year, the governments hand will be forced by the Troika into real reform in the public service.
The medicine will be a 25% reduction in PS staffing numbers, OR, a 25% reduction in PS salaries.
That may not be what people want to hear, but that’s what happens when you invite the IMF in to bankroll your country.

@ Jason Bourne. Would you be at all interested in proposing a solution yourself?? Not all leaving necessarily go onto the dole. My idea would appeal to low ranking public servants who are on low and reduced wages with little prospect of promotion or advancement in a contracting and demoralised public sector. Some might take the cash and leave to travel, pay off debt, raise young children etc in the hope of the jobs market improving in 3-4 years. The state would not have future wage & pension commitments. A redundancy package could be targeted to ensure essential services.. Nurses, Gardai, teachers etc do not exit on-mass.

Colm, I was wondering what the point of your post under my original comment was but seeing what you posted below is an excellent point and has probably more to do with the situation that pertains rather than any ranting that Colm McCarthy had about the retirement scheme being badly planned.

Poor Mc Carthy, it must hurt when you are a hate figure for your fellow well heeled public servants but as usual his analysis is bang on….

McCarthy is right but he offers no alternative solution.

Most of the people are in top grades meaning they get very nice pensions. He’s right that it’s a ponzi scheme because it’s the younger working generations who are paying for it.

My solution would be to radially increase the public sector pensions levy that would recude all pensions well below 100k and hopefully as low as a 50k max.

Totally agree Colm. Which emphasizes the folly of allowing only senior people retire and leaving gapping holes at supervisory and management level. A targeted redundancy programme in various grades and professions makes much more sense IMO.