Martin: No cabinet split over budget

MINISTER Micheál Martin has scoffed talk of disunity within the Cabinet about how €4 billion in savings will be made in Wednesday’s budget.

He said reports that ministers were split on the controversial 12-day unpaid leave package for the public service were false.

On RTÉ’s The Week in Politics he confirmed there would be “tiered” salary cuts for public service workers, with those earning the most losing the most.

Mr Martin said there would also be cuts to pay, pensions, welfare and capital spending.

In terms of higher level pay Taoiseach Brian Cowen will be hit with the largest cut – with at least €57,000 cut from his salary of €285,000.

This was the recommendation of the report of the higher remuneration review group which has been considered by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan.

It found senior figures in the public service were paid considerably more than their European counterparts.

A sample of positions examined by the report suggested pay cuts in the region of €35,000 for the secretary generals of departments.

Ministers will have their pay reduced by €33,000.

General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, David Begg, said when the talks broke down on Friday the Government had made it clear the review group’s report would have to form part of any Budget package. The unions accepted this.

It is understood when Mr Lenihan takes to his feet on Wednesday he will apply the same level cuts to all high earning positions in the public service.

This will include senior civil servants and, for the first time, hospital consultants.

In addition there is expected to be a €16 cut in child benefit.

A restructuring of welfare benefits will be announced. This will target young unemployed people, with as much as a 50% cut in jobseekers’ benefit for under 23s.

Standard welfare payments, excluding the state pension, will be reduced by 8%.

There will also be moves to stop some benefits, such as rent supplement and community employment schemes, acting as a disincentive to work.

Fine Gael’s Alan Shatter said the Budget process and the breakdown in negotiations with the trade unions was a farce.

“The events of the last few days if it was not so serious could be described as a Christmas pantomime,” he said.

The Labour Party’s finance spokesman Joan Burton said the Government had botched the process. She said it was opting to make crude cuts instead of working with the unions for long-lasting reform.