‘An Bord Snip Nua’ begins €5bn task
The six-member special group on public service numbers and expenditure programmes was officially unveiled yesterday and comprises three former workers of the Central Bank and one long-time civil servant. Two core members will work full time and the other four members will meet weekly.
They will come up with a final plan by next June to find up to €5 billion in public savings, including redundancies and restructuring of jobs in the public sector. All six will work on a voluntary basis, the Department of Finance confirmed last night, but “their remunerations will be worked out in due course”.
The two core members of the board include UCD economist Colm McCarthy and Donal McNally, second secretary-general at the Department of Finance.
Mr McCarthy has previously worked for the Central Bank, the Economic and Social Research Institute and the economic and consulting firm DKM. He has also served on the boards of the ESB and Bord Gáis.
Mr McNally is an economics graduate of Trinity College Dublin who entered the civil service about 40 years ago. He joined the Department of Finance 22 years ago where he held senior positions in the public expenditure division and the budget and economic division.
The four other committee members are former governor of the Central Bank Maurice O’Connell; Pat McLoughlin, who spent 28 years in senior management positions in the old health boards; William Slattery who worked for the Central Bank for more than 20 years; and, the only female on the board, former tax partner in PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Mary Walsh.
