Civil servants vow to fight cut to payment for meetings
A payment of €212 for the first night away from home and €69 after that is paid to civil servants who earn over €125,000. Those on salaries below that get an allowance of €218 for the first night.
It is the only one of 1,100 allowances scrapped following a review of the system by Brendan Howlin, the minister for public expenditure and reform.
Savings of €3.5m will be made through changes to the allowance system this year — far short of the €75m promised by the minister last December.
The review said the delegates’ and chairpersons’ allowance could no longer be justified because officers were “already adequately compensated for travel and subsistence expenses”.
It said “the work involved should be seen as part of the normal flexibilities of the working arrangements of the officers in question”.
It said the cost of the allowance last year was €1m and this “would escalate sharply if this allowance were to be left in place for the forthcoming EU presidency”.
A spokesperson for the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants said its members would be “disproportionately impacted” by the decision. The union said its members have already endured pay cuts of up to 20% in basic pay, pensions, and entitlements.
It said that “given the strength of feeling among our members on this issue” it would “consider all available options under the Croke Park Agreement in regard to maintaining the allowance”.
Meanwhile, teachers’ uni-ons criticised changes to allowance for new recruits which they said would lead to inequalities among employees.
New teachers will not be entitled to allowances for their academic qualifications or for working in Gaeltacht areas or the islands.
The Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland said the allowance cuts represented the third attack on teachers’ pay since 2010 and were “vicious and unwarranted”.
Some allowances you may not have heard of:
* Dirty money: Paid to plumbers, fitters, and council workers who come in contact with dirt, such as sewage pipes, landfill, tar, or dead animals.
* Franking allowance: Paid to staff who operate a machine to stamp envelopes in the National Museum, the Chief State Solicitor’s Office, and parts of the civil service.
* Keyholder’s allowance: Paid to staff who hold office keys across the civil service.
* Footwear allowance: €65 a year for civil servants where black or navy shoes are needed with their uniforms.
* Civilian clothing allowance: Made to army personnel “engaged on military duties which require the wearing of civilian clothing”.
And four allowances you probably have heard of:
* Second opinion allowance: Paid to consultant psychiatrists when they advise a colleague on the discharge of patients.
* Gaeltacht allowance: Paid to certain gardaĂ and teachers who work in Gaeltacht areas.
* Location allowance: Paid to nurses for “arduous work” in specific areas including accident and emergency departments, Alzheimer’s care, and profoundly handicapped services.
* Foreign services allowance for staff of Irish embassies.
* Read more:
Just one of 1,100 public sector perks cut
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