Fine Gael promise of more public service jobs sounds familiar

There is a peculiar danger with Fine Gael’s election campaign and it is this: there is more money around and that allows it scope to do things not possible two or three years ago.

The problem is that some of these announcements have a vaguely familiar ring to them. What could they be? Oh yes, Fianna Fáil of the 2002 or 2007 vintage. If it makes too many of those Icarus flights it could find its campaign getting every so slightly singed.

Yesterday, the party had a big announcement to make. After years of jobs cuts in the public sector, Fine Gael is now ready to begin an ambitious recruitment programme for the public service.

Pre-announced

It intends to create 10,000 jobs over the next five years. It wasn’t exactly a new announcement. Enda Kenny already pre-announced it at the Fine Gael Ardfheis weeks ago.

It was clear the party want to play it up, while trying not to play it up too much or else it will be accused of repeating Fianna Fáil’s over-reaching of the naughties.

So within nanoseconds of announcing it, Kenny was putting it into context. “Our position is different to any other party or different to any other government that has come before us. The last Fianna Fáil administration did spend on public services but that spending compounded the problem in so many areas.”

Strategic

This time it is different. Why? Because it’s not just spending. It’s “investment”. More than that, it is “strategic investment”. It is also “smart investment”. Is it just Fine Gael using other words to describe the same thing, ie, more recruitment in to the public service?

Mostly yes, but it is probably more focused.

It is true that, in the golden days of the Celtic Tiger, Fianna Fáil-led governments recruited willy-nilly. It is also true that this new intake will be more channelled. But to claim that it is some kind of scientific exercise is taking it a bit far.

Cutting numbers in the public sector was one of the programme for government targets that was actually met. The numbers fell to about 288,000 and the pinch could be felt, especially in the health sector but also in education and the Garda. There has been some sectoral recruitment; 4,557 in health last year, for example, to plug some yawning service gaps.

So it’s not a surprise that the new 10,183 staff to be recruited over the next five years will be in frontline positions in those three big sectors.

Fine Gael has promised to recruit 3,224 teachers, 2,800 nurses and 1,800 gardaí.

Another 2,500 will be employed in health in specialist areas, including some 600 new consultants, doctors and dentists; 500 social workers and 259 speech and language therapists, and psychologists.

These will be net jobs, in other words in addition to those being replaced because of retirements and resignations. The cost should work out at about €500 million a year, although the party has yet to supply costed figures.

Will it make a difference? Of course it will. But it might be a case of running to stand still. Other initiatives in education and primary health care will put additional pressures on the system and might well nullify the impact of the new recruits.