FINE GAEL’S plan to cut incomes for State employees earning over €100,000-a-year and a freeze on pay, bonuses and increments for all others would save just €500 million this year.
The €100,000 threshold, if implemented, would affect less than 3,000 people out of the 30,000 people employed in the Civil Service, and a so far unknown number in the much larger public service which has 300,000 staff.
Other savings, though so far unspecified, could be made from cutbacks in the HSE, Fás and Government departments, said Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny.
Asked if he accepted that the exchequer must cut €2 billion this year, as the Government asserts, Mr Kenny said it depended on whether it wanted to “front-load” cutbacks. Under the Fine Gael plan, State employees’ pay, bonuses and increments would be frozen until the end of 2010 – saving, it says, €1.5 billion in that year.
“If the Government has pay cuts on their agenda they should affect those over €100,000. I say that very clearly. It is very obvious that the public service did not cause this problem,” he said.
“But we still don’t have any clear picture from Government as to what else they are going to do. They are talking about rates. They may well be talking about water charges.
“They are talking about third-level fees. They may be talking about the introduction of more taxes on top of the 17 introduced in the budget.”
The Government has to “give clarity” on how much money can be saved from the work of An Bord Snip, headed by economist Colm McCarthy.
“[He] will recommend a series of options as they go through spending, vote by vote. We haven’t been told the information about that.
“Are they going to make decisions about these options as they are presented or wait until they have them all collectively and then present their decision collectively?”
The Department of Finance has already produced figures showing that €2 billion must be cut from the State’s spending this year, and €4 billion off the spending projected in the last budget for 2010 and 2011.
“I don’t know what the Government decision is on either front-loading projected savings or not. Finance produced reports that this would take four to five years and [require] a cut of €16 billion,” he said.
Ireland’s overseas development aid (ODA), over €900 million last year, should not be cut, Mr Kenny insisted. “Ireland has a proud record.”
The ODA budget has reached its current size “as a result of pressure in the house over quite a number of years”, while Fine Gael had wanted legislation to force the Government to meet United Nations targets.
Mr Kenny will travel to Mozambique next week to visit camps coping with Zimbabwean refugees. “Ireland has a very proud humanitarian record in this regard, and I believe that is one area where we have to keep our commitments.”
The Fine Gael leader said he had agreed to travel with Irish Aid “on one condition that I was not going to be toured around any palatial establishments”.
