THE CROKE Park agreement has taken hundreds of millions of euro out of the cost of providing public services, the leader of the trade union representing middle-grade civil servants has claimed.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Public Service Executive Union in Galway last night, general secretary Tom Geraghty said he fully expected that the review of the deal to be undertaken next month would show that all of the targets set by the International Monetary Fund had been “more than met”.
But he warned delegates not to be complacent. He said the original targets for the Croke Park deal had been set out by the previous government in its agreement with the IMF last December.
These had been based on projected growth rates that now did not look likely to materialise.
Mr Geraghty said this would put further pressure on public expenditure and on the Croke Park agreement.
He said if members continued to work at the agreement they could come through the current economic crisis without the introduction of compulsory redundancies or further pay cuts.
However, he warned that this would not be easy.
“We will hit bumps on the road. We will have situations where there will be enormous difficulties for groups of members.”
He said “the Croke Park agreement has been a success, is a success and will be a success”.
Delegates at the conference voted to continue to back the Croke Park agreement.
The president of the PSEU, Valerie Behan, said the overwhelming majority of members recognised the necessity of holding on to the agreement with both hands.
She said the entire effort of the PSEU and other public service unions was directed at the maintenance of the protections on jobs and pay rates set out in the deal.
“Our task now and for the foreseeable future will be to work to the terms of that agreement, to ensure that services can be maintained and even enhanced, despite the massive reductions in public service numbers that have occurred already and that will continue to occur.
“That will not be easy and it will create difficulties.
“However, we are now subject to outside control, beyond our elected Government. That means, inevitably, that there will continue to be cuts in public expenditure. Our Government has lost the right to make alternative choices. If we are to protect our members’ rates of pay and maintain their job security, we have to show that the Croke Park agreement can deliver.”
Ms Behan also defended the union’s successful move in recent months to challenge the Department of Finance’s proposals to abolish privilege days – additional days off on top of annual leave – for some grades in the Civil Service.