Civil service unions examine ways to cut staff numbers

CIVIL Service staff unions last night met with the Government to discuss how it intends to reduce the headcount under the terms laid out in the Croke Park deal on public sector pay and reform.

Under revised plans in the Croke Park deal, the Government wants to reduce the number of civil servants on the Exchequer payroll from 36,200 to 34,600.

That revised plan says that department and state bodies should review their workload, making sure it is assigned to and carried out “by the most appropriate teams and at the lowest appropriate levels within each organisation and to eliminate unnecessary grade drift in decision- making”.