Croke Park deal must deliver, warns Lenihan

FINANCE Minister Brian Lenihan issued a coded warning to public servants that the Government will walk away from Croke Park if it does not get the cost efficiencies it wants.

“Despite the economic constraints, the Government has abided by the Croke Park Agreement on pay, compulsory redundancies and on pension terms,” he said in yesterday’s budget statement. “Public servants, their unions and their managers for their part must abide by their commitments to pursue flexibilities and reforms in every part and level of the public service. We have made commitments to a continued reduction in the cost of the public service. If the Government is to be held to its side of the Agreement, those reductions must be delivered.”

There had been many calls in recent weeks, given the dire financial circumstances, for the Government to abandon the deal which guarantees no pay cuts or compulsory redundancies.