What annoys me is that the entire public service and civil services ranks are lumped together. Yes there are some allowances that could be scrapped but some of the older allowances do form part of basic pay of workers. The higher paid are not touched nor are politicians. This is just a suggestion how about reduce taxes, sort out the mortgage crisis and allow more money to flow into the economy. Oh and stop worrying about iPhone apps and the privacy of Kate Middleton.!

It’s amazing how finger pointing can keep the heat off themselves. This has been happening every September/October for the last few years. Release certain info about the public sector in a negative light, watch people in the private sector feel hard done by and no one gives a shite about TD’s getting €61 a day for attending the Dail. The place they are suppose to attend anyway as the people voted for them, amazing. Don’t get me wrong, I work in the public sector and some of these allowances are not classified correctly, some are core pay,due to historical reasons and pay freezes, and some of them could be removed. It’s just wrong that the government turn the people against each other and reap the rewards

Will they change any of the allowances for new TD’s and ministers. In all the articles there was no mention of any changes to there allowances. Probably increase there own allowances.

This include the political snouts themselves????

Shift allowance is a wage. Travelling expenses for TD and councillors is a luxury.

John McGuinness a quick suggestion if you want to investigate allowances start at the top. What are you getting as chair of the PAC? 12k extra?

BTW disclaimer I do not work in the public service but why John are you getting 12k extra to do your job?

Maybe they should look at their own allowances first

Including any allowance into core pay will surely cost the State more as pensions would be increased off the back of the change.

Wonder will the media ever get off the backs of the public sector? Is it not a pity that the media were never as meticulous when they were reporting on the banks during the boom! As my article below states the media were aware of starange going-ons at Anglo Irish Bank as far back as 2002, but it seems they ‘binned’ the story fairly fast. Maybe if they had dug a little deeper on the bank stories like they do now with the public sector, maybe we might not be paying off the bankers gambling debts!
http://gfmurphy101.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/culpable-negligence-as-the-1-owned-media-looked-the-other-way/

Get rid of Howlin – a good start.

@artur as regards waste in the public service, there probably is waste , but if people bothered to read the list of allowances they would see most of allowances are shift/ weekend/night work allowances etc for gardai and hospital staff. The media highlighted allowances that suited their sensationalist spin, as example the Irish Independent falsely reported that a ‘box-making’ allowance given to staff at the Chester Beatty library was 15-20 euro per box. The truth was that the alleged box was a special purpose made box for storing old manuscripts. The report stated that in fact it would cost 15-20euro per box if the work was contracted out to the private sector! Abolishing most of the allowances the media highlighted would have saved thousands not millions as the media claimed. While I agree that the media should properly investigate ALL sectors of society, one wonders that they are spending so much time disecting the public sector, I wonder are there other sections of society like bankers et al now up to no good like they were during the boom, knowing that the media’s focus is elsewhere!!

Some of the allowances really are crazy though, a receptionist receiving phone allowance for answering the phone, an emt receiving allowance for using a defibrillator? I mean come on, who’s kidding who here?

They can look at it all they like as long as howlin and his paid off union buddies say “hands off” these allowances won’t be touched.
More Croke perks than park

Yes the PAC are on the case, the taxpayers can rest easy now.

Priceless listening to Eoghan Murphy (FG TD Dublin South East) this morning bemoaning the waste of public sector allowances until it came to his own €12,000 a year allowance to attending Dáil Éireann. All of a sudden his allowance was justifable on its own merits. I’d love to get €1k a month towards the cost of getting to work on top of my salary for being in work. Simple answer to the vexed question of which allowances should go; roll up those allowances that form part of the salary into the core salary and then deduct the average percentage pay cut to the additional salary amount. Abolish entirely those allowances that are not part of the salary. Reference to the definition of wages under the Payment of Wages Act 1979 should help steer those towards what consititutes wages/salary and what does not.

What was John mcguinness doing all those years when his party was in power? Nothing, absolutely nothing except feathering his own nest.

Ok so let me get this straight:

The average wage of a public sector worker is around €35,000 per year. Now they want to take as much as possible of you with their Austerity bullshit charges.

Now if we look at it:

Governmental officials wages are between €100,000 and €200,000 and don’t forget their “expenses” account.

So if we were to put money back into the economy should it not be the private sectors wages that should get looked at?

I’m sick of this government telling us we have to pay back their debt and the banks….yet there on wages that are way over the top and they are not even doing their job?

Anybody else see something wrong with this picture????

http://www.change.org/petitions/supporting-the-irish-nation-step-down-from-government

Maybe the pac will claim.a second opinion allowance when.review is done

We are broke. Stop all allowances today. People are lucky to get wages never mind allowances. Why are councillors paid ? Stop it now. If they want to volunteer to do the job – let them. County managers are paid to manage the councils.

For gods sake. It’s as simple as this ‘We cannot afford these allowances any more’. Simple cut them. If they were in the private sector it would be done immediately.
At The moment theprivate sector are like a poor child outside a chocolate shop looking in at the rich children, scoffing sweets and chocolates down there knocks, knowing that he will NEVER be invited in.

Jeez Mark, we’re so ungrateful. T’would bring tears to a stone!

This is another waste of time and money. This simple solution should have been implemented 3 years ago :
All public service employees made redundant and pensions paid off etc.
New job contracts, uniform across the board, with proper working conditions and affordable/reasonable levels of pay offered to staff.
Anyone not wishing to take up the new terms of employment, replaced by someone on the dole.

It still isn’t too late!!!

Forget it. It is wishful thinking that the public service or any large group can reform itself in a way that leaves it less well off. The early retirements were a disaster as they cost a lot in upfront payments. This review should be stopped before it does more harm than good.

@censored at least your arguments appear to be winning in the “thumbs down category”