Siptu challenges Cowen over election

Siptu general president Jack O’Connor has called on the Taoiseach to call a general election if he is unable to rein in “hawks” in the Department of Finance who are pursuing “slash and burn” economic policies.

Mr O’Connor also called on Brian Cowen to “exercise some control” over Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan before his department does “irreparable damage to the country and closes off all prospects of a recovery”.

He described Mr Lenihan as a “bright, capable, hardworking man pursuing extremely wrong policies”.

Delivering his union’s verdict on the McCarthy report at Liberty Hall today, Mr O’Connor described it as another illustration of the Government’s “recipe of reprehensible remedies,” following the transfer of the banks’ massive debts to the taxpayer and the constant calls for workers to take pay cuts.

“It represents an attack on public services and on the social welfare payments of the most vulnerable while simultaneously proposing to sell off important State assets so that those who still have money can pick them up at bargain basement prices.”

However, he said it was evident that public expenditure must be controlled. “We are all in favour of public sector reform but we are not prepared to accept the extreme ‘slash and burn’ approach of Colm McCarthy and his group.”

Mr O’Connor said he accepted that public service numbers should be reduced, but he held the proposed reduction of 17,500 in the McCarthy report was “a tall order”.

“We can accept that the numbers have to be reduced, not because we have a bloated public service but because of mismanagement we simply can’t pay for it.”

Responding to questions, Mr O’Connor declined to say how many public sector jobs could be cut. He said the vulnerable must be protected from any cuts and expressed opposition to any cuts in social welfare benefits.

Mr Lenihan said yesterday that if the minimum wage was shown to be an obstacle to job creation in any particular sector of the economy, then the Government would have to address the issue.

The Minister, who was speaking at the MacGill Summer School, also issued a warning that no group would be exempt from consideration when it came to implementing the recommendations of the McCarthy report on public service staffing and expenditure, and this included social welfare recipients.

Mr Lenihan said the Government had as yet made no decisions on the options offered in the McCarthy report. He said each of these would have to be examined in turn and “a collective decision will be arrived at by the Government”.