Croke Park report will verify substantial savings, says Cody

“Substantial” savings will be verified when the body charged with implementing the Croke Park agreement makes its second annual report next month, the leader of one of the country’s largest public sector unions has forecast.

Speaking at his union’s biennial conference in Killarney, IMPACT general secretary Shay Cody said the savings, which were exceeding Government and troika targets, had so far been achieved mostly from reduced staffing. “But, as the deal approaches its second anniversary, significant cost extraction is also being delivered directly through reforms in organisations large and small.”

Mr Cody said Croke Park measures had directly led to over €680m in payroll and efficiency savings, and cost-avoidance initiatives, in its first year.

Since then, public service employment had fallen by over 11,000, an agreement on leave standardisation had been implemented and there had been progress on rationalisation of services and agencies, staff redeployment, shared service initiatives, streamlined procurement practices, and many other local and national reforms.

“Next month, the implementation body’s second annual report will quantify the savings delivered under Croke Park in the year to mid-2012. I am confident they will be substantial.”

He said public servants understood the need for further substantial cost extraction, but were determined it could be done without further erosion of their pay.

Meanwhile, the union has expressed strong opposition to the privatisation of water services unanimously voting in favour of motions calling for Irish Water to remain in public ownership.

IMPACT national secretary Peter Nolan backed reform of water provision but said the best way to prevent privatisation was for councils to retain legal and operational control of capital assets. Irish Water should be established as a not-for-profit organisation with a strategic role in raising investment funds, developing infrastructure, and ensuring that local authorities met robust standards of water quality and value for money, he said.

“Once Irish Water is established, with an income stream from water charges, the temptation to privatise would be immense, particularly if economic circumstances change for the worse and Ireland comes under international pressure to sell more State assets. In any case, Irish Water would be ripe for privatisation by any future Government that chooses not to make a commitment to continued public ownership.”