Pay and pensions - Report puts spotlight on public sector

THE Department of Finance’s analysis of pay and pensions from 2001 to 2006 has some startling findings, especially in the detail. The net cost of pay and pensions is projected to increase by 58.9% between 2001 and 2006.

The number of publicly funded service employees (excluding local authorities) was 257,023 on January 1, 2006, which was an increase of 38,760, or 17.8%, since 2001.

This was a sector on which the Government was supposed to cut back, but that has gone the way of so many other promises.