McCarthy: Incentives for public sector vital

BORD Snip Nua chairman Colm McCarthy yesterday called for a system to give incentives to people in the public sector to bring about cost savings.

One of the lessons learnt in recent years was that, if budgets available to county councils and the semi-State sector were “too elastic and too generous”, the money would be spent, he said.

Unlike what happened in the private sector, there was no reward for public sector mid-management to come up with ways of saving money, he remarked.