The Government has just published a three-year plan to overhaul the civil service which it says aims to provide a 'world-class' service.

Top-ranking civil servants have rejected the proposed Croke Park II round of pay cuts.

Unions representing staff at either end of the hierarchy in the civil service are to campaign for a rejection of Croke Park II.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has insisted a deal to cut €1bn from the public sector pay bill is fair and proportionate.

The Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants will be recommending a 'No' vote in a ballot of its members on the proposed extension of the Croke Park Agreement.

The non-payment of increments to senior civil servants would save the State just €250,000, a senior trade union leader has claimed.

A staffing crisis is looming in the civil service because thousands of workers are nearing retirement and the Government is not doing enough to replace them.

The civil service is ahead of its 2011 targets in terms of reducing staffing numbers under the Croke Park Agreement, a conference has heard today.

SENIOR civil servants will this afternoon debate the introduction of a scheme that would allow public servants to try out early retirement for a year — and return if they don’t like it.

The Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants (AHCPS) said today that the decisions and actions taken by senior members of the Department of Finance and their advice to successive Ministers for Finance over the period 2000-2010 has been largely vindicated.

THE union representing senior civil and public servants yesterday voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Croke Park deal on public service pay and reform.

The Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants (AHCPS) has voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Public Service Agreement 2010-2014 agreed between the Government and trade union leaders last March.

Trade union Unite today urged public workers to reject the proposed pay and reform deal.

Unions lined up tonight to launch vicious attacks on the Government threatening months of angry disputes and strikes over pay cuts.

The group representing higher civil servants has described today’s pay cut introduced in the Budget as "a brutal and grossly unfair reduction" in the pay of individuals who work hard on behalf of the State.

The Government tonight vowed to press ahead with €1.3bn public sector pay cuts after talks with unions on alternatives dramatically collapsed.

Union leaders tonight threatened to stage a second national strike unless agreement is struck with Government when crunch talks start tomorrow.

UNIONS will close schools and shut down hospital services for at least a further day after next week’s strike, unless the Government offers guarantees on their members’ pay.

Top-ranking civil servants have voted in favour of joining a one-day strike over the Government’s planned €4bn Budget cuts, it was revealed today.

THE trade union representing 3,000 of the country’s most senior civil servants has become the latest to advise its members to strike on November 24 over the threat of cuts to their pay.

THE Government has come under further attack over its decentralisation plans with a leading public service union calling for a major review of the controversial programme.

WHY doesn’t the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) admit that the so-called partnership deals are dead, at least in their current form?

THE Government last night denied that a decision to allow departments switch around jobs set for decentralisation was a complete U-turn on previous policy.

Concerns about decentralisation are topping the agenda at the annual conference of the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants in Dublin today.

TOP civil servants, responsible for implementing the Government’s decentralisation plan, yesterday called for an advice service for families affected.

Michael O’Farrell, Political Reporter

AN POST spent at least €2m on external consultants last year while insisting it could not give staff overdue pay increases, an Oireachtas Committee heard yesterday.

AN POST spent at least €2 million on external consultants last year while insisting it could not give staff overdue pay increases, an Oireachtas committee heard yesterday.

Mary Dundon, Political Reporter

ONLY 46 of the 2,300 employees in State agencies whose jobs are being decentralised have agreed to follow their own jobs down the country.

THE Government moved yesterday to defuse the escalating row over decentralisation by insisting that it was listening to union concerns about moving 10,000 civil servants outside the capital.

The Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants (AHCPS) has called on the Government to review its decentralisation plans.

A LEADING public service union will today formally ask the Government to conduct a review of the terms and timeframe of its decentralisation plan.

FINANCE Minister Charlie McCreevy yesterday vowed to plough ahead with decentralisation at all costs and denied the Government’s plan to relocate 10,000 civil servants was politically motivated.

Plans for decentralisation may backfire writes Political Reporter Michael O’Farrell.

THOUSANDS of top civil servants are threatening strike action and vowing to oppose Government plans to complete decentralisation within three years.

The Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants has called on the Government to slow down the implementation of its decentralisation plans.

LESS than a quarter of Department of Education staff is willing to move out of Dublin under decentralisation plans, an internal survey shows.

STAFF at two State agencies have voted overwhelmingly to reject the Government's decentralisation plan.