lol
…though in the spirit of this topic, maybe you shoulda reserved a table at guibos for said cat…

Fu*king animal farm

Many types of civil servants guards etc which can be joined at 17

Eh, 41.56% of the Irish electorate in 2007? So, if not you, then statistically the people on either side of you.
Never forget that half the population is, by definition, below average intelligence, and that very few people have high intelligence. A feature of any electorate not missed by most political machines.

Comfortably is probably the word…

How is he a chancer? After 38 years service and at 55 he is entitled to take it. Maybe you should blame the people who gave him this contract.

My husband is a civil servant who will have the requisite 40 years service when he is 57. Because he’s further down the food chain, he won’t be allowed to retire at that point (and certtainly with NOTHING like that kind of pension!!). It’s a really elitist arrangement.

It seems that “Fat Cat” is a harsh persona to attribute to this person. After all, yes it is a lot of money, but he was Chairman of the HSE, and as a high ranking Civil Servant he was involved in a lot of large decisions and national policy matters. I’m not sure I would want someone in that position who wasn’t the best available, and the only way the government can get the best available is to provide a competitive salary. If Mr. Scanlan was in the private sector he would have been earning a lot more and no doubt his pension would be even more attractive than the one he received.

Also, of course high ranking Civil Servants get paid more than those on the lower rungs, if they didn’t no one would want the added work load and responsibility of senior positions. There are huge amounts of Civil Servants in Ireland and there is no way they can all receive Mr. Scanlan’s type of remuneration but likewise they can’t all be on €50k a year, some with responsibilities of running a €15 billion department.

It’s not at all elitist that those in senior positions get paid a lot more, it’s just simple economics. People should stop comparing these pensions to those of other civil servants or other public service workers in Ireland, the proper comparisons are Managing Directors and CEOs in the private industry.

Having said that, the 50% pay cut the civil servant took is highly commendable, and everyone in government should be thinking about taking that much off their salaries. All, and yes, I do mean all (no matter what level or job) salaries in Ireland are too high. That’s why we have so much unemployment, small business can’t afford to take on new people, they can barely afford the ones they have.

Tobias Elhar, if he was in the Private Sector he would have been FIRED for the mess the HSE is in

Yep, €200k is mental. But, in the interests of balance, I know that my husband has been a civil servant since he was 17. Yes, his job is secure and pensionable but the days of a 39-hour week haven’t existed for him for a long time. And, no, he doesn’t get overtime. I’m not sure what you’d count as perks but compared to my private sector job, he gets zilch and that has always been the case.

We really need to tackle the disproportionate salaries and packages like Scanlan’s (and Dermot McCarthy’s a few months ago) but it’s unfair to tar the entire public service with the same brush. We’ve been calling for staff cuts acorss the board and we’re finally getting them. The problem is that those cuts are going to affect us all – the exit of teachers, guards, nurses, midwives etc is going to wreck the system. Brendan Howliln needs to have the balls to tackle the ridiculous salaries at the top of the tree, including to politicians (both in government and opposition).

well said Cecily..and public servants at frontline have been looking for reform for years but all i can see happening now is experienced colleagues retiring and in.my case AGS no recruits and no inward investment in.vital equipment i.e. patrol.cars

I don’t think €200k is obscene. We are talking here about the highest ranking employees of an organisation that employs thousands of people. If it was a private sector job it would offer over €1m in salary.

How can we expect to attract the required calibre of people to top civil service positions if we are not paying enough? Make no mistake, while the politicians are the public faces of departments, the top civil servants are the ones with the management skills required to run huge ungainly organisations.

Take for example the Secretary-General of the department of health. The departmental budget is approximately €14 billion. A CEO of a private company in charge of that amount of money would be earning seven figures. What chance of attracting someone of that calibre does a €200k salary have?

Ultan, we had the highest paid political leaders in the world excluding mineral rich African dictatorships and we got Bertie and Biffo, not to mention the fiasco that is pretty much every single government department “managed” by these people. it’s not always about the paycheque.

Don’t say “going forward”. Please.

http://coronationstreet.wikia.com/wiki/Karl_Munro

What was stopping you joining the civil service pre 2007? Salaries too low for you? Private sector workers in the good days turned their noses up at public sector jobs and when their private sector businesses go bust they want to bash the public sector?

What Job are you in?

i dont know where you get this 95% from

the assumption that ‘everybody would do the same’ is simply a way of legitimising or dismissing what is clearly wrong. it suits the powers that be to encourage this kind of thinking (as if it was the most natural thing in the world to tend towards corruption

i wouldn’t do the same. and i am sure there are plenty like me

Alan, I have great respect for people like yourself who stand up for this kind of tyranny. I hope you are one of those people out on the streets campaigning and lobbying your TD. In my experiencing though, most just sit in front of their computers…… Including me!

What about the moronic civil servants charged with oversight of the banks?They were asleep at the wheel rather than protecting the interests of the people who pay their bloody wages.
A plague on both their houses!!!!

That’s the problem. I’m his fu*king employer and some other idiots signed the contract with him in my name.

Agreed. Ridiculous money but he’s not to blame, it’s the idiots who designed these packages. He COULD offer some of it back as a show of solidarity with the people who paid him for his 38.5 years in the PUBLIC service.

To whoever that public servant was who took such a huge cut, what an awesome person and what a gesture.

His employer is now bankrupt.. Thus rational grounds to cancel that previous contract… Just as happened to 400,000 people in private sector over the last 4 years!!!

well said nigel.

besides they key phrase here should be “Public Servant”… no matter which word you put emphasis on, really

Those in the lower & middle pay grades in the Public Sector had their wages slashed, too. Slash & burn without as much as a by your leave. It’s those at the top who have not been affected. This story angers many both in the public & private sectors. Are we going to go down the public versus private sector again ? United we stand. Divided we fall.

Sorry, comment in the wrong place…

How is his job a “lazy ass job”? I agree his remuneration is over the top, but with respect, I don’t think we can comment on the nature or responsibility of his position.

Well with the mess the health system is in, lazy ass sounds a kind way to describe the job he was doing.

Public servants pay for their own pensions. Why does nobody know this?!