The high levels of pay in the PS has been noted by the Troika and is IMHO the reason no substantive deal on debt is forthcoming.

If we’re over spending by 15 billion a year to pay PS what is the point of giving us debt relief? In 5 short years we’d be back where we started

True Frank,and its the elephant in the room ,any cuts enda has already taken are obviously way too small .any one on lower wages in the public sector should be standing up for themselves and the public by demanding that some semblance of reality be imposed on the higher payed in public services ,nobody wants someone on 35000 being shafted by someone on 175000 ,and in a democracy it would never have gotten this far out of hand,so i think if public sector wants public support,they must show their loyalty to the tax payer,name and shame those incompetents on mega wages because,if they want the higher payed jobs ,someone will have to move over at the trough,we can’t simply keep making the trough bigger and bigger!

I wouldent blame it solely scrap but I just think we have some cheek looking for a writedown when we are paying TD’s and top and I make the distinction TOP civil servants obscence salaries and pensions.

My missus tells me the Guards will go mental if the Sunday allowance is taken from them. That will be the straw that breaks the mules back.

They won’t though.

They’ll have too, or face a backlash for real this time!

They’ve brazened it out in two budgets so far,do you really believe their “hard necks”will start to soften?

Their own unions must share the blame for that!!

Karolyn, fainting nurses is not good, maybe go back to the dresses , more air less fainting

And the male patients loved them Shay :o)

We’re well said

Ben. They need to go for the middle managers there are too many plus too many on too good of money. Administration is another problem. There is far too many administrators and too many over complicated process.
For every stupid over complicated process it costs alot of money. We need to streamline how we get services by better process improvements

“there is far too many Managers”
It would be fair to say that a ratio of workers to supervisors or some form of line authority at a ratio of six to one is not unreasonable. Probably fair to say that someone with the identified level of English is unlikely to be in Management and the observations provided may have more to do with subjectivity rather than a structural thesis.

Our union have pretty much told us that extended working hours are off the table as there is no cost reduction in real terms, just more value for the existing money being spent. That said we have had 4 weeks of overtime in 5 years so i suppose that doesn’t really apply to my grade.

Michael a grasp on English does make a good manager. Yes I am a manager so up yours sonny boy.

Very mature DB. Keep setting a good example there as a manager.

Michael I have a long standing qual allowance since late 90′s I did a hdip during which they stopped this (fair enough wasn’t working in the field) when it was due to start again “someone” put it in as a new allowance and it was stopped waiting review. I have a letter from hr saying I would be in receipt of it for duration of my employment (gotten when applying for mortgage) they person who wrote and signed the letter on headed paper denied point blank they had written it in a union meeting. That’s what we are up against. We study and do courses to improve care I’d be getting the same amount of money if I never opened a book after qualifying at least teachers get remuneration for post grad courses.

The problem is that I’m a frontline worker (ANP) and I’m on a salary that’s not very far off that when you take into account overtime.

James i’m a private sector worker i get O/T as well but like you it is not core pay and that is what i’m refering to.Maybe i should have been clearer but i thought it was obvious.

Yeah. The problem is that this week I’m working a 72hr week. I don’t get allowances (contrary to what some quarters would have you believe, these are not being paid). The overtime that I do get will be taxed to the hilt making it almost financially worthless to me.

Again James myself and i’m sure countless others are not refering to frontline staff and those on less than 75K a year.

James
Are you trying to tell us that the higher marginal rate of tax in Ireland is so high that the nett income is worthless? You would thus not countenance any increase in such a rate where it was being proposed for the super wealthy ?
Given that view I’m sure that you would thus surrender all such payments at that rate so that junior colleagues can be given a higher starting salary or alternatively, the necessary monies to employ more nurses could be made available.

Michael, read again. I did not say that it was worthless, I said it was almost financially worthless.
My overtime (any and all, regardless of amount) is taxed at the higher rate. II have no problem with the higher rate on my standard income, however I disagree with it for overtime, due to the fact that for me, overtime usually means a string of 12hr shifts, or 36hr shifts. The average working day in Ireland is nowhere near this, and the effects on personal life is so much more than were I working a string of 8hr shifts.
I am writing this at the end of hour 6 of a 36hr shift, I will possibly get 2-4 hours sleep tonight (maybe, depending on workload), and I will go straight into the day shift. The recovery from such a shift is longer than recovery from an 8hr shift, as it will take me until Wednesday night to get a proper night’s sleep, and then Thursday night I will be preparing for yet another 36hr shift, which means yet again, sacraficing my weekend because of the fact that the HSE cannot hire new recruits.
Besides, with the overtime that I do get, Revenue take half back, so I’m not seeing the point of your argument.

Norman the above article is an attack on frontline, who do you think works Sundays, and unsocial hours that they want they want to cut. It isn’t the people sitting in offices working 9-5 , the same people who would prefer to cut these allowances because it doesn’t effect them

I’d hate to be a low to middle paid public sector worker right now! Would you trust those Cosy Senior Union Officials to negotiate on your behalf??!!! No chance

Nigel , dead right

Breda
Where do you get your razor sharp objectivity from?
According to you , a Nurse , of whom we know nothing , other than the prolific contributions he makes on this site at all times of the day and night, is doing a “good and efficient job” and you go on in such a sycophantic way when you add that ” he deserves every cent that he gets if not more. He is carrying useless pen pushers.”
So basically Breda you wouldn’t touch any of this guys arrangements as part of the Croke Park Review even though he says he earns nearly seventy five thousand a year?
So on the basis of some attachment to male nurses you decide that a review of this section of the Public Service is unnecessary?

I think what Breda is saying Michael is that there is no point touching CPA if you are not going to go for proper systemic (as opposed to mere “pay” reform). You are not paying me for my worth, you are paying me to stay here. I can take a flight to any other country on the planet and be respected for the job I do. Yes, earn less, but at least I would not be viewed as the reason for the downfall of Ireland.inc.

Nobodies contract forces a 75 hour week, some do it , but they don’t have to, if you do them hours your compensated with overtime rates, so 75 hour a week people get no sympathy from me

Except for interns sorry, and if its quite they can sleep, but it’s still wrong the hours their forced to do

True Shay but god love them very few junior docs get to sleep on call these days well at least where I work.

Huge numbers of SHOs and registrars work far longer weeks than interns.

When you’re rostered for call you have to work the shift – it’s compulsory.

The concept of overtime being some sort of premium for those of us who routinely work through the night is laughable – time and a half doesn’t come close to compensating for a 24h+ shift.

Sig, interns , sho and some regs? I accept , was really referencing to nurses , care assistance and porters , you point is well made

It has long been my opinion that lots of public service jobs have been created to keep some ppl in work for work sake. How often have we seen applications/ double and tripled. Almost each query is dealt by different personnel or even departments. And each time it back to square 1 with the paper work.

DDI, it should never be easier to reorder a new test/X-ray than it is to check up on reports/results of the very same thing you are looking for that was carried out in another hospital quite literally 4miles up the road.
We rely on a half decent referral letter from the GP, and the grace of a good verbal Hx from a patient who may or may not know what it was that they actually had carried out on them. Very often we rely on our own good intuition and gut feeling of the services that a patient is engaged with.
Duplication leads to redundancy of information.

James for the record, while I support DDI and intend to vote for them given the opportunity, my views are my own and I am not mandated to express views on their behalf.

Having said that the reason I support the concept of Direct Democracy so strongly is because I believe there are enough people like me who want to see serious PS reform, not tinkering around the edges. DDI would provide the platform for this to happen provided enough people felt the same way

Apologies SCP, I could only see the logo, not the rest of your title! Thought it was you alright, but didn’t want to take the risk!

No problem James

Oh yeah. They’re doing a swell job.

By all means cut my pay by 10%, heck go for 20%.
Make my job 20% better though. I’ve spent the guts of 12 years studying full time/part time, and this very moment I’m trying to locate patient X-ray results and reports by phoning another hospital up the road that is the exact same hospital on paper, of the exact same organisation.
I’m an expensive secretary, that’s all I’m saying.

Breda doctors work in excess of 75 hours a week they also if on call at weekends work a 7 day week. It’s the nature of healthcare.