Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill. I believe the purpose of this Bill and this Department is to fundamentally undermine the public service, destroy jobs and undermine the availability and the provision of public services to the general public. That process started under the previous Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government and is now being continued by the Fine Gael-Labour coalition Government. Effectively, the public service staff are being blamed for this recession. They are a soft option and are seen as easy targets. They are being blamed for a recession in which they had no hand, act or part in creating. The provision of public services is being undermined, delayed and in some cases is not available at all. We saw in the recent "Prime Time Investigates" programme some of what is happening on the ground as a result of the various cutbacks in public services.

As usual, it is the lower paid and the middle ranking public servant who is facing these cuts, the undermining of the service, and the pressure of work. The senior public servants who are very well paid and have very good conditions escaped scot free. If their jobs become vacant they will be filled, unlike those of the middle ranking and lower grade public servants.

I have worked in the public service for approximately 30 years and I have also worked in the private sector. In my experience staff in the public service work above and beyond the call of duty on an ongoing basis. There is no doubt that is the case, even more so in recent years.

I refer to an independent evaluation by an international organisation which examined the public service. In the OECD report, Public Management Reviews: Towards an Integrated Public Service in Ireland, it is clear that the Irish public service compares very favourably with other public services in the European Union. The report states:

A policy since the mid-1990s to limit non front-line service employment has meant that public sector spending and employment growth have not kept up with population and GDP growth. [In other words, it has failed to keep pace with population and GDP growth]. Ireland's real average annual growth rate in public expenditure between 1995 and 2005 was 5.1%, significantly slower than real GDP growth of 7.5%.

That is seriously falling behind the growth in GDP.

The report goes on to state:

Government policy therefore has actually decreased the total number of public sector employees as a percentage of the labour force and decreased the overall public sector wage bill as a percentage of GDP. As compared with other OECD countries ... government employment in Ireland represents around 14.6% of the total labour force, which is relatively low among OECD countries and is significantly less than the level of public employment in Norway, Sweden, France, Finland and Belgium.

That is an international independent organisation telling us that we have a public service that started from a very low base and has provided good quality public service and compares more than favourably with our partners in Europe and with other OECD countries.

What has happened since then is that further cutbacks have taken place. As the Minister stated, we have lost 16,400 public servants since 2008 and this Government proposes to destroy another 25,000 jobs in the public service in the coming years. What does that mean for service delivery and for staff? It means no replacements on any vacancies that arise due to the moratorium. It means there is no cover for maternity leave, sick leave or annual leave. It means there is huge pressure on staff, and staff are becoming ill from the pressure of the daily grind that is forced upon them. It also means that in respect of the services, if one applies for a carer's allowance or a disability allowance one will wait 20 weeks for a decision. That is in circumstances where those staff are working above and beyond the call of duty. If one appeals a carer's allowance decision, one will wait 12 months for the appeal to be heard. That is the position across all the services including special needs assistants, resource teachers, home helps and care assistants, as we saw on our television screens in recent nights. In addition, there is a six months waiting list for medical cards, etc.

What we need is support for the public sector and the provision of good quality public services for people who need them.

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