Kenny warning to public servants

The Taoiseach has issued a stark warning to public servants that the protection of wages under the Croke Park Agreement may be revisited if work practices are not changed.

Enda Kenny said the flexibility of the agreement between the Government and unions is “certainly going to be tested at the end of this month”.

More than 8,000 public servants are due to retire by the end of February under an early retirement incentive. Mr Kenny said this will require changes such as redeployment of staff and rearrangement of rosters.

“If you want to get the full maximum response from Croke Park and if the Government are, as a consequence, to honour the pay elements entered into here then Croke Park has got to deliver in full,” he said.

Mr Kenny also put it up to managers across the public sector to ensure services continue to be delivered as staff numbers are reduced. He said transition teams will be set up in hospitals and other areas of public services to manage the exodus of workers.

“It’s not all down to trade unions here, it’s also down to local managers having very clear and specific plans,” he said.

Mr Kenny said the public finances cannot be fixed without the co-operation of public servants, managers or trade unions and “that’s what the Croke Park Agreement is about”.

“We can provide very efficient front-level services. And across the public sector, in general, that’s going to require both a change of role and a change in attitude.”

The Government is prepared to keep its side of the deal, but if workers do not honour it, “the Government will have some decision to make in the future”.

“And there will be a review of Croke Park, obviously, later on in the year.”

In an interview on RTÉ radio, Mr Kenny also denied that the EU’s fiscal compact, which was agreed last week, was drafted in a way to avoid an Irish referendum on it.

He also dismissed claims the fiscal compact — a set of rules to impose tighter budget discipline on eurozone countries — would consign Ireland to years of austerity.

He said Ireland is already in a bailout programme with the EU, ECB and IMF, and that “supersedes” anything in the fiscal compact.

“We set out the reasons also why countries emerging from a programme like ours will continue to receive funding if that’s necessary,” Mr Kenny said.

“Ireland signing up to this is not consigning itself to a programme of austerity for the future,” he said, adding that the changes made will allow for growth in the future.

“Jobs and the growth agenda, and the potential of the single market will from now on be a central feature in every council agenda,” Mr Kenny said.