MORE THAN €260 million has been generated in savings under the provisions of the Croke Park agreement in the health and local authority sectors, the new review of the deal has been told.
Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan has said savings of €162 million had been made in the first reporting period of the deal, which ran to the end of March. The deal was ratified by unions last June.
Earlier this month, the Health Service Executive (HSE) revealed about €100 million had been saved in the health service under the Croke Park agreement.
The figures have been presented to the national body overseeing the implementation of the agreement, which is carrying out the first official review of the deal for the Government.
The Implementation Body has said all claims relating to savings made by Government departments will be verified independently as part of the review.
It is understood figures for savings generated in the Civil Service and State agency sectors had not been presented to the Implementation Body by the end of last week.
The Department of the Environment submission to the Implementation Body said the €162 million in savings was divided equally between pay and non-pay.
It said between the beginning of 2010 and March 2011 local authorities had shed 1,630 staff.
“The restructuring, productivity and performance initiatives reported as payroll savings by local authorities were implemented to deal with these staff losses. Generally, the narrative supplied by each local authority in respect of pay savings refers to non-replacement of staff and the absorption of work by the remaining staff through restructuring, productivity and performance initiatives.”
On the non-pay side, the department said Dublin City Council had saved €9.6 million as a result of the introduction of more competitive procurement in the area of waste disposal. It said €3.3 million had been saved through more competitive pricing on construction contracts.
The report said South Dublin County Council had generated €5.5 million in savings as a result of a new green bin contract. It said a further €1.1 million had been saved through renegotiation of other minor contracts.
The department said Fingal Council had saved €4.1 million in a joint energy tender with South Dublin County Council.
It said Fingal had also saved €3.3 million through the establishment of a centralised fleet management and plant hire unit.
The health service submission to the Implementation Body has said staffing levels fell by 4,179 between March 2010 and March 2011. The report said the recent voluntary redundancy/early retirement scheme produced gross savings of €60 million.
The schemes cost €100 million but they would generate “substantial medium to long-term savings”.
The report said the target of €106 million set for various value-for-money initiatives in the health service last year was exceeded by €20 million.
