Me too Conor.

Sup John? What did you say?

Retired staff Vinny. Party on Joan. Maybe the people at some stage will say enough.

Then I truly feel for you, as the fast majority of companies and organisations have Christmas parties.

yeah my wife is the same, she works in the public sector, and it was money from their own pocket used to fund their party and at the prices the pub was charging it was just salted cocktail sausages, chicken goujons and wedges,

I believe that that over 700 people were invited / attended… 5k is not excessive to be fair. Also at least 1 company benefited. By the way some people are going on, Christmas should be cancelled. What a nonsense.

They are not the norm in my job. We have a few Christmas drinks at our own expense, not a penny from our employer

Staff Christmas Parties are normally paid for by staff themselves, and I do not know of any public service workers whose Christmas parties are even subsidised let alone paid for by their dept.,.

It was a retirement party. Haven’t had Christmas one yet, that’s in New Year when this particular storm dies down. # reality is for fools.

Oh right a retirement party paid for by the department , seems reasonable enough so .
After 40 years service, for I imagine all members of staff retiring this year, is little enough to be spent.
Good luck to them.

It was a retirement party. Christmas party is in New Year when this storm has passed over. All Departments are under strict orders to keep the publicity to a minimum, but still have a good time at tax payers expense. #reality is for fools

Exactly Steve. Nobody is saying to
Cancel xmas or that nobody worked hard during the year.. I havent seen anyone on here saying that!?
I work in a financial services company ,who laid off 25% of its workforce in 2009 also and since 2008 we have had to pay for our own xmas parties. No ‘tough decision’ made here obviously to tell the department staff that theyd have to pay for their own

Eileen, I play football with a bus driver for Dublin bus, he told me of the parties they have that are subsidised by the company, loads of booze, food and entertainment all paid for by the company. He changes his car every two years for a new one and always has plenty of money for the better things in life, he told me that if you are there over 10 years you have it made. All at our expense!

were I work I have to pay for my Christmas party and my Christmas bonus was raped with tax..

It wasn’t a retirement party. It was a party for people on fat state pensions.

Paul Mc
I worked as a public servant,and in all the time I was working we never had a party paid for or subsidised . We did however get a letter pinned to the notice board from the relevant minister thanking us for our dedication and our professionalism throughout the year. This was the only ‘thanks’ we got above our wage that acknowledged we worked Christmas day, nights, New Years, etc etc., We didn’t look for more either ,or expect it. As for your ‘friend’ bragging about the great perks that Dublin Bus have for their staff well I think he is telling you Porky Pies just to wind you up. .

we pay a ceremonial president 250,000 for nothing

You’re going to attack our president who voluntarily reduced his pay by 23.5% ever before the bill went through on public service pay capping and also has stated that he will not draw any pension entitlements while he holds the office of presidency?

This while there was no mention of any pay cuts for tds in the budget?!

Of course they should have a Christmas party, but in no way should the taxpayer pay for, it’s fairly simple to see that I would think

really? I work in the civil service and nit once in 13 years have I had a staff party that wasn’t paid for by us staff!

According to TodayFM this morning which discussed this, its working out at about €20 a head. The invite would have went out to a large amount of people like those working on the ground in social welfare, dole offices and so on. Christmas Parties are indeed the norm and acceptable. Some small businesses spend the bones of €500 on a night out for a small staff party. Large businesses spend more as they have more people to invite.

Seems to be just the media having a go for a sake of having a go.

Oh go away you puppet, big bleedin deal… he still gets E250,000 for what? How is that disgustingly exorbitant salary comparable to the GDP of a small Ireland in recession? What are we paying him for? Why does he get paid more than the chancellor of Germany? Not to mention the millions he gets in expenses, the house, servants, private chefs, 5 star hotels. You and the likes of you are the reason we are a laughing stock throughout the world. Tom, you make me sick, you are the epitome of what we have become.

Mature response there. I believe the president should be paid less too – but I think you attacking him in the context of so many other, and much more relevant, targets is blinkered.

For anyone that hasn’t noticed – this was not a Christmas party

In total, more than €5,000 was spent on the party, Ken Foxe revealed in the Mail on Sunday through documents that showed that the annual retirement get-together for ex-staff members was held on 31 October.

Thats another bug bare of mine. Why are Bonuses of 800euro taxed at 52% just as bonuses of 1million euro!!?

john green thumb from me. you are spot on.

Heil on Sunday non story trying to whip up some cheap outrage against Burton and the Public Service in general. Smacks a bit of desperation if you ask me, would b more in their line to ask the government to prove that there’s really any evidence that a couple of points extra PAYE or USC on six figure earners would scare off the multinationals.

Speaking of which, I worked for a multinational that paid for staff parties twice a year, you can be guaranteed that it cost more than €5k. At the time management were running the place into the ground, more redundancies were coming every few months. But you can be guaranteed, also, that the men and women at the top were still getting their bonuses.

Businesses are not spending public money – your point is irrelevant with respect

At least u get a Christmas bonus. In public sector I pay for my own Christmas night out and get no bonus!

I despise the cuts, particularly those to carers, but €5k for a retirement celebration with many attendees is modest. This is hardly cutting edge journalism. Move on tabloids, nothing to see here.

Staff parties are a standard way to improve employee morale and therefore productivity. Normal HR practice in the private sector, why should the public sector be different? It’s not exactly an unusual operating cost.

Plus, I think the Heil on Sunday’s agenda has less to do with a supposed misappropriation of public funds, and more to do with their ideological drive to attack the public sector at any given opportunity, because they’d rather their mates run public services for profit.

D

SMcB
after this budget Christmas is all BUT cancelled for some of the less well off in our country.i do hope you enjoyed your christmas party this year

Most public servants pay for their own parties, what’s so special about this lot

@ steve mc nally so you as a public servant never had your work pay for a piss up?????????????? how much did DUBLIN FIRE BRIGADE pay for the open bar at the 150 yr celebrations???????? was it in the region of 17,500 euro???????????????? yes it was, and that was tax payers money fact!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@ jimmy riddles. I’m 9 years working in the public service and never once had an Xmas or any other party paid for or subsidised.

@ nocturnal paramedic, its a fact dublin fire brigade spent 17.500 on a piss up free bar to celebrate the 150 yrs, i think thats disgusting, its tax payers money and in these times people not being able to clothe and feed kids its sickening

@Jimmy – how are we to take this as fact? where is it reported?

@ Paul Anthony Ward. Party was for retired staff…

@ tomy, ring up and ask the assistant chief im sure any descent journalist can get it under freedom of information, mark my words its fact its wide spread knowledge that the free bar cost that much, alot of the lads were disgusted by it and think its sickening.

This was for a Christmas party for retired staff, not current staff! Bloody disgraceful!

I will thanks James. Seeing I’lll pay for it out of my own pocket.

Not true stop making false statemts. Front line, low paid public servants pay for their own Christmas parties but when I worked in the private sector it was free bar etc all paid by the Companyy. We get nothing for free except abuse from ill informed trouble makers like you

@jimmy riddles – I’m not about to ring anybody up. But thank you for confirming to me that your “fact” is not backed up by anything whatsoever.

@ tomy, i work in the job so belive me i know what it cost

Forgive me if I don’t take your word as fact. If you feel so strongly about it why don’t you talk to someone in thejournal.ie then??

I’m not saying you’re fabricating it – I have no doubt there are plenty of that kind of abuses of tax payers money – I just don’t understand why you want to support your argument with something unverifiable…..

Well said, Olive. Unfortunately, the knee-jerk response when anyone mentions a civil servant is of the usual, unthinking “burn them at the stake” variety. The professional sneerers don;t want to hear that your pay has been cut by 14%-18% or that there are clerical staff out there paid so little that they have to apply for family income supplement. The media enjoys this because this kind of article gets the attention. The government loves it because it deflects attention from them.

And?

Thought i was the only one disagreeing with this! Does Joan not get enough in her salary to pay for it? or if it was “only” 20 quid a head then why didnt theycpay for it themselves? Country is in the shit and they still spend money on frivelous things!!

you are absolutely spot on Martin but good news doesn’t ever sell the cut backs and fraud investigation successes aren’t publicised ever as it would appear that the public/civil sector are easy targets as they can’t fire back. I believe some of the unions even tried taking out full page ads in the national papers highlighting what was being done but were shunned because accuracy and objective honest reporting no longer exists.

It may not be helpful but that’s not for thejournal to decide. As readers we decide if something is or isn’t newsworthy. The piece above is not an opinion piece, it’s more a statement of account with no sides taken – just facts presented.

The idea of suggesting that stories shouldn’t be reported out of some kind of public interest could be extended right up to the most important of stories. Certainly ones with wider implications than this.

There is no suggestion of no reporting I’m just suggesting that they examine their sensationalism and its not just the print media. Why promote the villains and forget the victims? The media can play a major role in our community in a very positive way if they just think a little differently. A different way might just work!

Nor was this a Christmas party.

That’s what I said.

Why don’t they pay for their own party,thank god I haven’t paid tax in years

It’s the Daily ‘Hate’…. They like stirring up shite amongst the masses..

What are u talking about, a 5k retirement party, they need to have some type of cop on when they making the sort of cuts that they are. How many people retire from the public service every year, if each got a 5k retirement party then it would start being a problem.

Doesn’t make a difference if they were drinking warm TK red lemonade and soggy cucumber sandwiches…why should we be obliged to fund the parties of wealthy politicians?

…wealthy politicians?

Because its the norm in a lot of business and does happen in the public sector. The people deserve to have a Christmas party, they are generally on a very low salary and their jobs are hardly the perk of the public service. Giving them €20 each to wind down one fecking night of the year is harmless.

Kevin – read the story – It WAS NOT a Christmas party.

Bull, work as a nurse for forty years, you get nothing but goodbye and thanks, as it should be, public money spent this way is wrong

Hi – that information is in the attached document but I have now added it into the text.
Thanks
Aoife

dose it matter whose retirement bloody party its was its our tax euros paying. for the heartless bast. . s

Aoife, my apologies. I have difficulties seeing images on the iPad and jumped the gun on this one.

No problem Mark! I should have made it clearer, really.
Thanks
Aoife

Of course it does John. Especially the frequency. if they do this for everyone who retires, it would be excessive. if this was a one-off, its not such a big deal.

Actually, Aoife, the article is not all that clear unless you can enlarge your screen to read the text on that scan. The party was for pensioners/retirees. It wasn’t a retirement party, it wasn’t a staff christmas do. I’m not excusing the department for spending public funds like this but the focus is important. Even a cursory look down the comments (the usual enlightened stuff) shows that your readers are now gunning for the *staff*. You have a little responsibility here.

Hi Chris. I never said it was a Christmas party, I said it was a retirement party.

The bits I added in were ‘annual’ and ‘ex-staff members’ – the word retirement was there since the piece was published, so I’m not sure why people were presuming it was a Christmas party.

Aoife

I see where the issue may have arisen – the use of the word staff. I have deleted this now to make things clearer. Thanks
Aoife

Agreed, Aoife, you *didn’t* say that but it’s clear from the commentary that a fair chunk of people are seeing it as a lavish piss up for pampered staff. I know it’s not your fault that people aren’t bothering to read the article.

Regardless of whose retirement party it was, why should it be funded by tax payers money? This money should be used to help the vulnerable not to fund a piss up.

I just can’t see the harm in that. Yes its public money, but 5000 isn’t exactly a back breaking number.
There’s this witch hunting going on where every time the civil service does something it is demonised and for all their failings and mistakes, I just can’t see this as “such and evil”.

Don’t do it again!!

Cause they used there in house post to send the invitations yet tired claim 700 for postage !

but why do WE have to pick up the tab ?

the only thank anyone should get for work is their pay. so many with no jobs or food in ireland

It wasn’t a staff party. It was for retirees. Not saying the money should have been spent but it’s unfair to target the staff in this instance.

Do you have a problem with an ex-employer spending money on an annual get together for ex-staff members considering the said employer ie, the state is supposedly broke?

Whoever pays the piper calls the tune….this is a perfect example of the mentality that scares us taxpayers in the private sector…”did you expect the organist to pay for free?”…did it occur to the organisers to knock the organist on the head (not physically I hasten to add)…of course not…you’re entitled to it right!!!

Good value yeah in fairness….. 5K would make a fairly serious difference to a few carers though. It’s been reported in this case but how many other government departments are at this? I’d expect JB’s isn’t the only one. It all adds up, just like a lot of cuts add up.

Is it untrue then?

who are thies idiots who voted you down

your right it’s only a drip in the ocean, and so it the gov’s travel expenses that add up to 11 million a year. every bit or tax payer’s money counts because who will be paying it back us the tax payer that’s who.

Your comparing apples with oranges. 5k a year cannot be compared to the monthly expenses TDs/Senators make which make up the 11 million per year you mention. It cannot add up any further or even come close to the expenses bill.

Get a grip. Children going hungry. Children go hungry because the more than adequate amount of money the welfare household gets is mismanaged or spent on alcohol, gambling, drugs etc…

Just shows your ignorance. Children are going hungry because of cuts. Easy to blame there parents. If you can’t see that Increments for already well paid and cuts to child care are related. oh yeah and a 5000 grand party. These are choices made with my tax money. I voted for a change and fell for the lies. Viva la grave train.

Read my previous comment above. We get it!!

I have a fair idea what i am talking about. More than you think.

Who are “they” Mark. I’m in the public sector. I don’t see the gravy train anywhere. I’m not entitled to handouts or any form of social assistance because my gross income is just over the limit. Like most, I’ve had to change gas/electricity providers to keep costs down. I look for the cheep brands when shopping and there have been weeks I’ve prayed the kids won’t get sick because the money just wasn’t there to pay the doctor. I own a 6 year old car which was second hand when I got it and I haven’t been on a holiday in years. I have sympathy for anyone on hard times but its some kick in the nuts to work your arse off nights/weekends etc for 14 years and be nearly in the same boat.

Value for money is not the point.

not everyone has email brains

You’re right. It’s completely unreasonable to expect people who work/worked in an administration department of Social Welfare to have email. Quite foolish of me. They could have reduced their bill by 10% by using something that has been around since the late 90′s but I suppose that is too much to ask.

@Declan you are nit picking just like other whiners on here It’s gone to the stage now any money spent there will be moaners and be grudges. Seriously cop on trying to implement goverment austerity.

Try reading my original comment again. I’m not whining or moaning (for the record I actually agree with you on that point which is a large part of why I read the journal), I’m merely asking a question that I think illustrates how backward things can be sometimes. If you look at the bill, it’s not even that bad. Catering and spot prizes aside theres no unreasonable expenditure. I just wonder sometimes why some one didn’t think that they could save ?700 by simply emailing people. Call it nit picking if you will. But Im used to a business enviroment that would be hung drawn and quartered for spending that much on something as stupid as posting invitations to people that you obviously have a phone number or an email for.

Party for ex-staff, your having a laugh…

700e postage for invitations divided by 55c per stamp: ~1200 postage stamps.
5000/1200 is 4e per invite…
I agree… And?

this is all part of an ongoing strategy by the media . I.e, The Journal TV3 and others to demonize those sections of society that impinge most on the governments budget. The Public service and Social welfare recipients are under the screw now. A few years ago the private sector was wasting money on elaborate parties fit there staff and using tax right offs. now their party is over and they are attacking any section that appear tight better off than them, or the life style they were used too. people need to snap out of it. we are all being manipulated by media interests while the big boys lap it up . whoever posted this story is up to no good and has an agenda.

The private sector wastes the money of their own, shareholders and investors. Usually they also generate tax, not consume it. Can you grasp the difference?

Why the party in the first place, it’s for ex staff who are already enjoying a generous pension. No company holds an ex staff party at their expense. Also emails are free.

Parties in private section were paid for by the company profits. Parties on a loss making public service are funded by the tax payer. That’s a big difference .