IBEC, the employers' body, has called on the Government to accelerate planned cuts in public sector employment, saying it should reduce numbers by 10,000 over the next three years.
The call follows new data indicating that recruitment restrictions in the public service are starting to have an impact. But senior public sector trade unionists have strongly rejected IBEC's call, saying it would seriously affect services to the public.
The latest Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures show total employment in the public sector, excluding the health service, was 239,400 in March this year, 700 lower than at the end of 2002. While the figures showed a 6,500 increase in employment compared to March 2002, the decrease early this year suggests restrictions introduced after the Budget are beginning to have an impact.
IBEC believes the decrease in the public sector numbers must be accelerated and has called on the Government to double its target of reducing public sector numbers over the next three years from 5,000 to 10,000 people. The existing target is "too little, too late", according to IBEC economist Mr Aebhric McGibney, who said the public sector pay bill had increased by 80 per cent in the past five years, about half of which was due to rising public sector numbers.
On Budget day, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, said he aimed to stabilise public sector numbers this year and cut them by 5,000 over the next three years. This was necessary to control the public pay bill, he said, at a time when benchmarking and other increases were increasing costs.
There has been a focus on the cost of benchmarking this week, following publication of action plans for what civil servants would do in return for the payments. Yesterday's figures also show average public sector earnings have risen by 3.1 per cent over the past year, to €717.65 per week.
Senior public sector trade union figures have strongly rejected IBEC's call. Mr Peter McLoone, general secretary of IMPACT, said the unions were in discussions with the Government about the 5,000 reduction target and that any larger increase would certainly affect services. If IBEC wanted to reduce numbers, it should say what services it believed should be cut, he said.
Mr Eoin Ronayne of the CPSU, which representatives many civil servants, said restrictions introduced after the Budget - mainly involving the suppression of vacancies - were already starting to affect service levels in areas such as welfare offices.
"You can't have it every way. You can't have a modern efficient public service without the people to do it," he said.
Yesterday's figures are not complete, as they exclude the health service, which has been the fastest-growing public sector employer in recent years. Over the past year, the main increase shown in the figures was a 5,700 rise in education employment.
During the first quarter of this year, there were small falls in civil service, defence, semi-state companies and local authorities, which more than offset minor increases in the Garda Síochána and education. Earlier CSO survey figures suggested public employment continued to rise early this year, but the latest data should give a more up-to-date picture, with the exception of its exclusion of the health sector. The earlier survey covered December to February while the latest data are for March.
