Early retirements pose experience gap

In a few weeks time, thousands of doctors, nurses, teachers, gardaí, and other civil servants are going to take early retirement in order to avail of the best pension deal.

This could cause an even bigger upheaval in the public service than was threatened by the announcement of the decentralisation programme in 2002.

Much of the proposed decentralisation never materialised, because the whole thing had not been properly planned. Decentralisation is not yet dead, but the Government has abandoned about 40 of the projects, and only 22 others are still being considered.

Some decentralised offices, which have been able to stand alone, have been successful, but on the whole Professor Edgar Morgenroth of the Economic and Social Research Institute has concluded that the decentralisation programme has actually damaged the civil service. It has led to fragmentation, loss of expertise, and impaired morale. At the same time it has done little for regional development.

In the light of these failings, it is frightening to think of the implications of the thousands of public servants being induced to take early retirement. In effect, the more experienced teachers, nurses, doctors, and gardaí are being enticed to retire, and nobody should be surprised if this leads enormous administrative disruption.

According to the HSE, more than 3,000 of its employees have either applied for, or expressed an interest in applying for early retirement, before the pension changes take effect at the end of February. This includes 500 people in primary care services.

Aspects of the health service are already in a shambles. John McGuinness, chairman of the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee, was complaining yesterday about the difficulties that people have been experiencing in getting medical cards. In this instance, the delays were not caused by decentralisation but by the centralisation of the applications process into one office in Dublin, employing about 150 people.

Some medical card applicants with terminal illnesses have had to wait up to nine months for the cards to which they are entitled. The whole process seems to be symptomatic of the centralisation of the HSE itself, which was supposed to streamline administration in order to produce a more efficient and cost-effective health service.

The opposition has questioned the level of projected savings likely to be achieved as a result of early retirement. Health Minister James Reilly has admitted that it will not be possible to gauge how much will be saved until after the deadline expires.

“There can be no certainly around this until the end of February because people can change their minds up to the last minute,” said Dr Reilly.

“Indeed, even though we’ve asked people to give a month’s notice, strictly speaking legally, they don’t have to.” Whose fault is that?

This Government inherited a mess, but it was elected to lead, and surely it could have found some legal way to ensure that it got at least a month’s notice in these cases.

The whole thing has the makings of a shambles right across the expanse of the public service.