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A CALL on Minister of State for Trade John McGuinness to stand down unless he retracted an "outrageous attack" on the Civil Service was made by the Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU) at a meeting in Dublin yesterday.

The motion followed an address by Mr McGuinness to the Beverage Council of Ireland's annual conference last Friday in which he described the public service as "now so protected by its unions that it has largely become a reactionary, inert mass at the centre of our economy". He also said the public service culture "destroys ambition, resists change, and is now so insulated from reality that information can be withheld from a Minister, unfavourable reports are doctored and answers to parliamentary questions . . . are master classes in dissemination and obfuscation".