Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has drawn that analogy with checking in with an airline many times but the simple fact is that the majority of public services are not comparable to checking in with Aer Lingus or any other airline operator. No offence to the Minister but I do not think that is a good comparison to draw. The fact is that front-line services are under huge pressure and that although the Minister now says he has no fixation with numbers, he and his predecessors have had an absolute fixation with numbers. I take it that he has moved from this target of a reduction of 10,000 whole-time equivalent posts by the end of 2015 and envisages a cut of 2,000 posts this year. I do not know what figure he envisages for next year. How is that to be done? I initially asked him about an incentivised redundancy scheme. Is that in his thinking? When would it come about and would it be targeted?

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