SIPTU outrage over €6m payout

THE country’s largest trade union has expressed outrage at revelations a local authority paid nearly €6 million to private contractors, at the time seasonal outdoor staff were being laid off.

SIPTU condemnation of Kerry County Council came after a disclosure, this week, that private plant hire and independent waste companies secured €5.8m in 2009.

The union’s sectoral organiser Andrew McCarthy said several drivers and general operatives — who had 10 and 11 months’ work in 2007 and 2008 and some of whom had over 10 years’ seasonal service with Kerry County Council — did not get any work in 2009.