Lenihan calls for 'collective social effort'
Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has appealed to the public to avoid "knee-jerk and defensive reactions" after the publication of today's report by An Bord Snip Nua.
The report, which lays out recommendation for one of the biggest planned cutbacks in the history of the State, urges 17,300 public sector lay-offs and has already drawn threats of a painful strike by public workers.
“I recognise, and the Government recognises, that the choices facing us are not simple or pain-free,” Mr Lenihan said.
“Following them through requires a collective social effort and not one motivated by protecting one’s patch or pursuing one’s special interest to the exclusion of all else.”
Targets in the 300-page report run the gamut from country schools to foreign embassies and an overseas military peace-keeping mission.
Among the key proposals are:
:: A 5% cut in all social welfare payments and a 20% reduction in the child benefit payments.
:: An end to “double payments” where a claimant on one weekly benefit claims another, such as carers‘ allowance or illness benefit.
:: The shutdown of the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and possible closure of the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism.
:: Garda stations around the country to be halved from around 700 to around 350 while half of all smaller district and circuit courts to be shut down.
:: Almost 7,000 staff be axed from the education sector with a reduction in schools and third-level institutions through mergers, and increased class sizes.
:: Parents charged €500 a year for school transport while transport for special needs children to be means-tested.
Such was the interest in the report by the Government-appointed group, dubbed An Bord Snip Nua (The New Snip Board), the Department of Finance website crashed when the publication was to go online at 2pm.
The team was set up six months ago to find ways of urgently clawing back billions of euro in public spending so the Government can bring under control its €400m a week borrowing habit.
But despite the gravity of the crisis and Mr Lenihan’s appeals, trade unions, vested interests and industry representatives voiced outrage over proposals that affected their members.
Ireland’s largest public sector union Impact warned that public workers would not be scapegoated for the gaping hole in the State’s finances.
The trade union’s general secretary Peter McLoone said the economic crisis was caused by bankers, financiers and property speculators and it was they who should pick up the bill.
“If the Government attempts to impose compulsory redundancies, or cuts in pay and pensions, there will be a reaction which will include sustained, widespread and painful industrial action including strikes,” he said.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said while some proposals had merit others were ill-thought out, including cuts in the number of rural primary schools and the closure of Garda stations.
“While expenditure must be reduced, what is required is surgery, not butchery,” he said.
“A careful and considered approach can produce a better and leaner Government. A slash and burn approach will do more harm than good.”
Mr Gilmore said the Labour Party would vigorously oppose any plan to cut social welfare payments and investment in primary education.
The report’s authors, headed up by University College Dublin economist Colm McCarthy, who led a similar Government-appointed team in the late 1980s, also urged all State-owned properties not being used be put up for sale.
Under the plan, 43 state agencies, including ombudsman offices and official watchdogs would be subsumed into Government departments, merged with another body or simply scrapped.
More than 6,000 people would be let go from the health service while a new five euro prescription charge for medical card holders and 125 euro fee for attending an accident and emergency department would be introduced.
In Defence, it is proposed to end Ireland’s peace-keeping role in Chad, reduce troop numbers by 500 and shut down the major Cathal Brugha barracks in Rathmines, south Dublin.
Some politicians’ expenses would be cut and the number of parliamentary committees reduced, while media organisations would be charged for rights and facilities in the Dáil.
The report also called for the end to the €15m annual subvention of internal air services in Ireland between regional airports.
The closure of lightly-used rail lines is recommended in favour of bus services with the sale of the country’s main intercity expressway coach service flagged as an option.
Mr Lenihan said the report would be considered and debated over the months ahead of the December Budget.
“On the basis of its analysis, the special group presents some difficult policy options,” he admitted.
“These are the choices that we as a people, and not just as public representatives and Government, will have to face up to in order to get this nation back on track.”
