Croke Park has to meet its goals and prove points

As the cost of the public service comes under increasing scrutiny, the reforms brought by the Croke Park Agreement may not be enough. The groups involved must work quickly or they will have to consider alternative methods to improve the sector, writes Kyran FitzGerald

THE Budget axe has been wielded. The backbenchers are growing restive. The popular press is roused.

Increasingly, as the downturn grinds remorselessly on, the question is being asked: Can we afford an agreement that leaves Irish state employees among the best paid in the world at a time when the country is in the second year of an EU/IMF bailout, with public service expenditure still running far in excess of income?

By the end of February, thousands of key staff will have taken early retirement in order to head off pension cuts. This will be a moment of truth for an agreement which is still very much a work in progress.

The Croke Park Agreement still has its share of stout defenders; people who insist that reforms are being secured in an atmosphere of industrial peace. They beg people to consider the alternative: pay cuts, followed by disruption and the jettisoning of co-operation with change plans.

But tell that to the restive army of Fine Gael backbenchers, who must explain why special needs teachers are being axed, and popular public nursing homes shuttered; while pampered officials (as they see it) depart to golf courses on pensions that most in the private sector can only dream about.

A couple of weeks ago, Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte acknowledged that the agreement was not writ in stone: it should have to show that it is performing.

Moreover, further economic deterioration could place the deal in jeopardy, he said.

The Tánaiste, Eamon Gilmore, moved to calm union fears, but the impression remains that we have moved into a crunch period for a deal which — as time passes — has appeared to be great from public servants’ perspectives, but not from that of an increasingly hard-pressed taxpayer.

IBEC director Brendan McGinty is a doubter. While the employers’ group is not directly involved, its members are impacted, like the rest of us, by public service inefficiencies.

He says : “Many of our members are increasingly suspicious. A year ago, members were giving it a fair wind. The rhetoric was positive. Progress has been pretty patchy in areas such as re-deployment.”

According to Sean Murphy, deputy chief executive of Chambers Ireland, the decision of the Environment Minister, Phil Hogan, to press ahead with the merger of certain councils is to be welcomed. Mr Hogan has appointed a group to look at the integration of Waterford city and county councils, for example. This is in line with the recommendations of the Local Government Efficiency Group, which reported in July 2010. However, as many as twenty councils have been earmarked for integration.

However, Mr Murphy agrees with Mr McGinty on the need for far more quantified savings from the process and he expresses disappointment with Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore’s view that the Croke Park deal could only be revisited in consultation with the trade unions.

He instances sick leave, the cost of which is €60 million in the HSE West area and up to €300m nationally.

IBEC’s McGinty is also seeking a much greater role for his members in the provision of services. He is calling for the bundling of smaller public service contracts, with a view to increasing their attractiveness to outside providers.

Shay Cody, general secretary of the trade union, IMPACT, has been a staunch supporter of Croke Park from the outset.

He points to hundreds of millions of euros in savings already achieved. In an interview with Industrial Relations News, he cited examples of progress, including: the transfer of 500 civil servants from other departments to the Department of Social Protection to assist in the processing of claims; the secondment of more than 1,000 community welfare officers from the HSE to social protection; the redeployment of staff as part of a centralisation of medical card processing; arrangements for teachers to work outside school hours; more flexibility in the re-deployment of special needs assistants.

New rostering arrangements have been introduced in certain prisons.

However, elsewhere blockages remain. Many believe Croke Park will stand or fall on the ability of management to secure new rostering arrangements for doctors and nurses in the hospital service. Too often, patients’ needs must take second place to rosters established years ago.

RTÉ reports on cutbacks, but rarely highlights the fact that, actually, there are almost 110,000 employed in healthcare in Ireland.

Providers have been adept in defending their interests and there is a tradition of militancy in the nursing organisation, which does not augur well for the success of Croke Park reforms. Too often, soundbites aimed at the heartstrings have taken the place of proper analysis.

Many rank-and-file public servants still smart at the pay cuts already extracted and the traditional trade union habit of arguing the toss over every point of detail may not sit well with the requirement to engineer a massive and rapid overhaul of the public service, at a time of national crisis.

Each reform measure raises new issues. Staff redeployments raise issues concerning employee rights where staff are transferred to organisations with fewer holiday entitlements, for example.

Long-awaited changes in garda rostering have hit a snag, Industrial Relations News reported just before Christmas. Change, here, is vital with more than a thousand gardaí leaving the force and with recruitment frozen. Too many gardaí are to be seen on the street when least needed, yet are absent in town centres late at night when trouble tends to emerge.

The Local Government Efficiency Group has highlighted the scope for reform in local government with changes in procurement and staffing and the transfer of tasks down to more appropriate grades. The country has 114 local authorities — way too many for 4.6 million people. Last year, local government cost €8.5bn to run — much of the cost falling on local businesses, many of which struggle to survive.

There has been progress in introducing shared services across councils. However, old habits die hard. Just try visiting your local library at lunchtime.

Few doubt the need for a shared vision in public service reform. In the current crisis, Greek-style confrontations are the last thing needed, but equally, the status quo simply cannot hold. Pensions paid to many medics in Ireland, for example, are running at twice those on offer in our nearest neighbour, Britain.

Cutting pensions and salaries of top level professionals would not appear to be an option for legal, as well as industrial relations, reasons. This is certainly the view of UCD academic, Professor Bill Roche.

What is required is a campaign to rapidly win over public servants to the cause of reform and to an acceptance that their position is a privileged, when compared with many in the private sector.

There are signs that, behind the rhetoric spouted by soundbite merchants, many accept that there is a need for real change.

A reform delivery group has been established under Paul Reid. His task will be to put meat on the bones of reform commitments.

Time, however, is an issue for him and for his boss, Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin.

“2012 will bring severe pressures,” said Brian Sheehan, editor of IRN. “The economy is unlikely to improve. The spotlight will be on the areas where the unions have promised to deliver. They have got to step it up bigtime. But those who want to dismantle Croke Park might not have anything better to offer. If Croke Park does not deliver on its own terms, it writes its own epitaph.”

As the late Elvis Presley would no doubt put it, for Croke Park, it is now or never.