cowan to cut the public sector wages

if they take 5% off someone earning less than 30,000 its nothing short of national disgrace, especially when Biffo earns $40,000 MORE than Obama a year.....
The clamour from the Private sector to cut Public sector wages is way OTT and basically fuelled by ignorance. This idea that all public servants are over paid, over staffed and have cushy numbers is a media inspired phallacy.
The majority of public sector workers in my area make LESS than 37000 with nearly have making LESS than 30,000 and people think they deserve a cut....
Makes my blood boil

Oh I'm going to enjoy this!!

The public sector in Ireland are a bunch of over-paid, lazy, selfish and deluded people. Pay should be slashed and the inefficient culture that is part and parcel of every department must be destroyed.
I'd love to see them survive in the real world.

Careful now RMD, there is a thin line between slagging and offending.
I am a public servant and i dont like being referred to in such terms, to be honest I am sick to the back teeth of people who havent the first idea what they are actually talking about taking every opportunity to run us down
Not Kidding

Liamwalkinstown wrote:Careful now RMD, there is a thin line between slagging and offending.
I am a public servant and i dont like being referred to in such terms, to be honest I am sick to the back teeth of people who havent the first idea what they are actually talking about taking every opportunity to run us down
Not Kidding

Ah come on now Liam. You should know me well enough by now to recognise a wind up post.

I'll offer a more serious take on this in a while. It's a topic that is going to exercise all of the barstool commentators in the coming days. I predict a mini civil war!

we will all be up **** creek if the public servants strike
No Nurses, guards, teachers etc.....
Talk about being taken for granted
Most people seem to think public servants all work and live in ivory towers laughing at the little people....
they have NO CLUE about the reality
If I ever meet George Hook I wont be responsible for what I do

this whole feckin countrys a joke, recently my fathers been loosing the feeling in his hands and legs ( they still work but he cant feel temp, pain etc ) and decided to go the docters. Needless to say the doc was very concerned and told him he needs a MRI asap, but was informed that if he was going public its a years wait . so he decides to go private and pay 500 yoyos ( which he doesn't really have). anyways the next day he gets a phonecall from the mater private ASKING him what day and time would he like to get done. so now he only has to wait 3 days. I know your health comes first, but what about the people who couldnt get the money. they'd be in a wheel chair before you could even get a scan. the medical system here a disgrace. im not giving out bout the doctors and nurses who work mircles in ourover crowed under funded hospitals. the amount of polish, liths and estonians that i know who go home to see a doctors mental. why , cause our systems crap

Easy on the slagging of public servants RMDrive, I think you could be in the minority
If the public servants go on strike the country will be on its knees in days. That should be a laugh.
I am a public servant and on less than 30,000 per year so why should I have to take the same percentage cut as the head of my Department?

I hear ya Shinners! I am a public servant too. Could be up to 7% paycut after today, on top of the 1% paycut earlier, no more increments and no 2% in September...
Shinners...Jayo....get you Placards and Megaphones....
Its time!!!

The old Public -V- Private debate. Guaranteed to liven up any Tuesday night in the pub! Firstly I better state that I work in the private sector and none of my immediate family is public servants.
Irish people are great at begrudgery!! Some times it seems like it’s the only thing that keeps us going. Anyone who is doing well for themselves needs to be knocked down a peg or two and didn’t really deserve what they have in the first place. So I’ll try to avoid that type of angle in this post.
So let’s start with a simple question – do I feel that the public service delivers a value for money service? Answer: No.
For me it all comes down to one word … efficiency. The private sector lives and breaths efficiency. It’s a tough global economy out there and any organisation that doesn’t offer high quality, good customer service and value for money is only heading in one direction (that’s down by the way in case you weren’t sure!). It’s a constant battle for a private organisation to do that and over my career that battle has involved mountains of overtime , tons of pressure, lots of disappointment and a small bit of success. Buzz-words like innovation and flexibility and high-value are thrown around like a Donegal hand-pass these days but the reality is that those words accurately reflect the values that a person/organisation in the private sector must demonstrate if they are to be successful.
And so I come to the public sector. High quality? Hmmm. Good customer service? Hmmm. Value for money? Hmmm. Listen it’s all too easy to indulge in a bit of civil service bashing and as I said at the start it’s a very Irish thing to do. But from my perspective the Civil Service is full of people who are under no pressure to perform well in their jobs. They cannot be made redundant (except in extreme circumstances). That point alone is worth emphasising. For all intents and purposes you cannot be fired from the civil service. If you talk to anyone in the private sector these days you will hear people who are absolutely scared out of their wits that they will lose their jobs. The value of having a secure job for life is massive. This job security means that people are no longer under pressure to excel at their jobs. Indeed they are under very little pressure to perform at all in their jobs! This situation becomes self-perpetuating. A culture of mediocrity develops. New starters are soon indoctrinated into this culture and so it is perpetuated. Anyone who goes against the norm is encouraged to match the approach of their peers. And so on …
If I honestly felt that there was a culture of continuous improvement in the public service then I wouldn’t really care about reward systems etc. If there was a perception that the country was getting value for money then I reckon that the whole public-private debate would be a pretty tame one. Don’t talk to me about pay. Talk to me about doing things cheaper, faster, better. Don’t talk to me about pensions, talk to me about improved customer service. Don’t talk to me about strikes, talk to me about the public sector taking ownership for its own destiny by not waiting to be forced to change.

And remember ... It's just an honest opinion.

A lot of what you say does make sense RMDrive but don't tar us all with the same brush.
Yes there are lazy feckers who clock in, snooze at their desk, take lunch, have a nap, clock out and then collect their salary every fortnight but I am not one of them.
In the current economic climate, I am grateful for my job and I really feel for those not as fortunate as me I just cannot understand why we have to bear the brunt of an incompetent governments panic attack.

Shinners wrote:A lot of what you say does make sense RMDrive but don't tar us all with the same brush.
Yes there are lazy feckers who clock in, snooze at their desk, take lunch, have a nap, clock out and then collect their salary every fortnight but I am not one of them.
In the current economic climate, I am grateful for my job and I really feel for those not as fortunate as me I just cannot understand why we have to bear the brunt of an incompetent governments panic attack.

Dead right Shinners. I didn't want to roll out the old "I know there are some good ones ..." line. And yes, incompetent governance that has definitely contributed to the unholy mess that we are in today.

Just testing

The new emoticon for arguements

See you actually ARE the problem RMD, no offence my friend, but you are the stereotypical Private Sector worker who thinks we are ALL the HSE....We arent! I work every day from 9 to five, get no over time, get no bonus, even at christmas, get paltry wages and get abused from a height for my trouble
U go on about the provate sector. When people go into the private sector they are going in for the better wages, which is beyond dispute. When we go for Public jobs we know our pay is crap, but we know our jobs are safe. So in effect, you went for the more money, less stability, we went for less money, more stability. And when it all went pear shaped you say its our fault and deny us our paltry wages.....
Two way street....? I doubt it!
(not you personally, just generalising like u did above)
(apologies for typos!)

@ admin.
Not an argument just a nice discussion, patrique and dellboy aren't here yet so no argument in sight!!


Well folks, as they say in Russia.... Moscow
Or as they say in Moscow, I'm Russian, gotta make a hungry Dub his dinner!!!

Careful Shinners, before u know it RMD and his cronies will require we fill in a form before we eat privately produced food