McGuinness public service attack ‘personal’

THE Government has insisted that a junior minister who launched a stinging attack on the public service sector was speaking in a personal capacity.

But the attack, coming ahead of a report reviewing aspects of the public service, will harden fears that the Government intends making significant job cuts in the service.

In a weekend speech, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise John McGuinness suggested millions of euro of taxpayers’ money would be wasted if the public service was not regularly and comprehensively audited.

He bemoaned the fact that the public service was “so protected by its unions that it has largely become a reactionary, inert mass at the centre of our economy”.

Betty Tyrell-Collard of the Civil and Public Services Union (CPSU) said the minister’s comments were outrageous.

“He is the minister in my own department where I represent 400 members. We have actually written to him about previous comments he has made asking him to retract them. He never responded. He has done the staff down.

“We will be looking for a meeting with the Tánaiste [Mary Coughlan] about it,” she said.

CPSU deputy general secretary Eoin Ronayne said the comments were “rich coming from a triple-jobber holding what some see as a questionable junior ministerial post”, a point also made by Fine Gael and Labour.

In his speech, Mr McGuinness said the union culture in the civil service meant that many professional positions in the public service were “not filled by professionally qualified people, because promotion is all too often based on longevity, rather than ability or qualification”.

He added: “I am particularly concerned by the fact that the public service continues to employ, adding more and more people who are almost impossible to let go, and who will in due course be getting inflation-proof salaries and pensions. In today’s world, this is madness.

“The lack of accountability, the lack of professionalism and the virtual impossibility of being sacked is destructive,” he said, before going on to suggest that audits which indicated waste of money at FÁS could be replicated elsewhere.

“The public service has to be immediately, radically overhauled because we cannot afford it in its present form.

“Do we need to discuss FÁS? Are there others that we will audit after more millions have bolted?”

The speech came just days after another junior minister, Martin Mansergh, warned that no state agency should consider itself “immortal”, and that “many more changes” were needed to the public service.

Earlier this year, Government departments and State agencies were ordered to cut payroll costs by 3% as the coalition sought to make savings because of the difficult economic climate.

A Government spokeswoman said yesterday that Mr McGuinness was speaking in a personal capacity. She said Taoiseach Brian Cowen had said he would examine the forthcoming report on the public service and consider its recommendations.

Labour criticised Mr McGuinness’s comments, saying it was “particularly inappropriate” that they were made in the middle of the social partnership talks.