Union warns of damage to public services

HEALTH union IMPACT has warned that Government plans for a 3% reduction in public service payroll costs by the end of 2009 will damage services particularly for the country’s most vulnerable.

The union’s general secretary, Peter McLoone, said Finance Minister Brian Lenihan was right to devolve implementation of the cuts to local managers, but called for “genuine engagement” with staff and their representatives to ensure the significant funding reductions do not damage services.

“The recent OECD study of Irish public services found that, compared to other countries, Irish public servants deliver high quality services with relatively few staff,” he said. “In other words, there isn’t much slack and badly managed cuts could easily hurt services to vulnerable people.