The chief executive of the Dublin City Business Association called today for the civil service wage bill to be cut by a fifth.
With unions and employers at loggerheads over a new pay deal, Mr Tom Coffey claimed government departments were ineffective and plagued by deadwood.
“In some Government departments there is a blatant ineffectiveness and lack of professional responsibility and ownership among staff,” he said.
“The majority of civil servants are productive and effective performers with vision and enthusiasm who carry the ‘deadwood’ of non-performing colleagues.
“It needs to be stripped down and rationalised to deliver value for money for the taxpayers.”
Mr Coffey said a 20 per cent pay-cut would bring civil servants into line with private sector workers who pay for their own pensions.
The Cabinet is expected to agree a raft of massive spending cuts in the next fortnight as Finance Minister Brian Lenihan prepares one of the toughest Budgets in years.
Departments have been warned there is a five billion euro shortfall in the Exchequer books after the tax take collapsed this year - blamed on the housing slump and subsequent fall in construction.
But Mr Coffey warned the property market had to be allowed to correct itself.
“The market must be allowed to work so that house prices fall to levels that new consumers can afford to buy them,” he said.
The DCBA also called for a recruitment and pay freeze across the entire public service for two years to bring down staff numbers and increase productivity.
“The Irish public sector overall is bloated with many state agencies suffering from inefficiency and inertia,” Mr Coffey said.
“The private sector needs to see an improved return on its investment in public sector pay.”
The DCBA chief also hit out at the massive pay increases department heads and top level civil servants were handed last year.
“There is no logic or justification for the existing link between elected representatives and civil servants pay,” he said.
PA