Social partners to hear €2bn cuts plan
Transport Minister Noel Dempsey last night said the Government would present the employers and trade unions with a “range of options” on how to achieve the cutbacks, and then seek consensus on the final plan.
Speaking following the conclusion of a two-day cabinet meeting on the issue, Mr Dempsey said the Government would not be presenting the social partners with a fait accompli.
“We purposefully didn’t go down the route of saying this is a specific cut or expansion or anything else.
“There’s a package there of a whole range of different things that the Taoiseach will discuss with the social partners and see if we can get a consensus.”
The Government has been accused recently of allowing the social partners dictate the economic programme rather than make the crucial decisions itself.
But Mr Dempsey insisted that it would be the Government which would make the final decision on the cutbacks plan.
“As we’ve said all along, before the end of the month, or close to the end of the month, it will come back to Government. [The Taoiseach] will inform us of what the views of the social partners and others were, then we’ll make a decision on it.”
The unions and employers’ body IBEC will attend separate briefings at Government Buildings today.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has already indicated that any cuts to basic pay will be stringently opposed. It has provided the Taoiseach and his cabinet with a detailed briefing document on how the economy could be rescued, including proposals to introduce a new 48% tax band for high earners and an income-related property tax on second homes and multi-million euro first homes.
That document has been considered by the cabinet in its two-day meeting.
Details of what will be proposed to the social partners have not yet been divulged.
There are, however, a few certainties: a significant lengthening of the pay pause from September’s national wage talks; some sort of recruitment freeze and cutbacks on premium pay and overtime will all be sought.
IBEC will be the first in with the Government at 10.30am, and according to IMPACT national secretary Bernard Harbor, the employers’ body must be asked to contribute its share of savings.
“It has been a matter of great irritation that IBEC says there needs to be cuts in public service entitlements yet their members are not being asked to contribute anything.
“There’s a growing annoyance among our members that people who are represented by IBEC have caused the financial crisis yet workers are being asked to provide the solution.”
IBEC, however, has said its members are already suffering with a lack of competitiveness driving many out of business. It claims any route-map for economic renewal and a reduction of unemployment levels must be built around the re-invigoration of enterprise.
Therefore it maintains a reduction in the public service cost base by pay or job cuts is the only alternative.
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