Labour to seek reduction in number of politicians

THE Labour Party has said it will seek a reduction in the number of full-time politicians in a soon-to-be published policy document.

The party’s leader Eamon Gilmore told an IMPACT civil service conference in Portlaoise that the need for rationalisation was all the more prevalent given that between TDs, senators and the new full-time mayors proposed by the Government the country will have up to 240 full-time politicians.

Mr Gilmore and Fine Gael deputy leader Richard Bruton were addressing the IMPACT trade union on their parties’ positions on the reform of the public service.

Mr Bruton said he would make no apology for arguing that managers in the service should “shape up or ship out” if they failed to perform while Mr Gilmore warned delegates that they needed to earn public support, rather than alienating people by taking industrial action.

IMPACT deputy general secretary Shay Cody told both men their parties needed not to resort to “blanket criticism of public servants: their pay, pensions, working conditions and the services they provide to the public”.

He said: “There is also a feeling among public servants that politicians of all parties increasingly take the easy option of attacking the people who deliver public services, not because it is necessarily the right thing to do, but because it resonates with vested interests – including many in the media – who are ideologically opposed to a strong, vibrant public service and to the workplace rights that trade unions and progressive public representatives have achieved.”