Madam, – In the absence of a clear manageable title for “The Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes” a shabby, trivialising and supposedly humorous nickname “An Bord Snip Nua” (The New Snip Board) is now used as if it were an official title by many politicians, State officials and on RTÉ news. A great many of us do not get the joke. Given that the word snip generally means a “small cut” or alternatively a “sure thing”, the nickname “An Bord Snip Nua” fails to elucidate the gravity of this special group’s remit, namely the most radical root and branch pruning and lopping of the public expenditure in the history of the State. Why has the Minister for Finance failed to address the use by public servants of this crass, unprofessional, patronising and insulting nickname? “The Public Expenditure Review Committee” could serve again as a more accurate and user-friendly official title for this group. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Having just read the McCarthy report, could I respectively suggest to Mary Harney that she might put off the decimation of the primary care system until after the swine flu epidemic is over? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I’m bewildered. According to the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance the country is in serious trouble. Their solution is to go off on holiday, and not to implement the McCarthy report until the December budget.
That is five months away, during which time our economy will continue to deteriorate. What we, the people, require is immediate action – not more fudging and accommodation of vested interests.
There is absolutely no excuse at this time of national emergency to hide behind contracts, terms and conditions, etc as a reason for inaction. Once the Cabinet gives way to one lobby group the whole McCarthy report will be rendered toothless.
Please Mr Cowen and Mr Lenihan, will you just do what you were elected to do and govern this wonderful country without fear or favour? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – If John Gormley believes that the “Bord Snip” report is a “menu of choices” (“Report a ‘menu of choices’ and hard decisions must be made – Gormley”, July 18th), could we ask that his restaurant be closed down due to health violations, thus requiring the chef, his maitre d’ and the junior bottlewasher to seek alternative employment? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The cruellest cuts of all have been to the overseas development assistance budget. If the Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach take the advice of the “Bord Snip” report and implement further cuts they will literally be severing a lifeline to the world’s poor.
In 2000 this country made a solemn and binding commitment to the international community to achieve the UN target of spending 0.7 per cent of GNP on overseas assistance. During the boom years, even though we never achieved this target figure, we had on overseas aid programme of which we could justifiably be proud. It brought us great kudos and allowed us punch far above our weight in the international arena.
As soon as the good times stopped rolling however, the hollowness of these promises became evident and the cutting shears were brought out – this year alone the aid budget has been cut by over 21 per cent – far more than any other sector.
I urge the Minister and the Taoiseach to be firm and ignore the advice of the snipmeisters. The world’s poor are already reeling from the effects of climate change, rising food prices and a myriad other issues. To withdraw the helping hand now would send many of them over the edge. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Does not Trevor Sargent have an impeccable sense of timing? Within hours of the Government publishing the “Bord Snip” report which recommends cutting the number of Department of Agriculture and Teagasc offices from 150 to 35, the Minister announced the formation of a new agricultural body, An Bórd Orgánach. Even for this Government this must constitute a record. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The McCarthy report proposal for 17,358 redundancies in the public sector seems farcical as the following simple calculations will prove.
Firstly, between PRSI, PAYE, and various levies, these workers would probably contribute €135 million a year to Government coffers (€150 per week each for 52 weeks) Secondly these people would then be entitled to Jobseeker’s Allowance costing the State €180 million a year (€200 per week each for the year). Then there would be the additional cost to the State of providing all these people with medical cards, rent allowance (say €800 a month), back-to-school allowances for their children, etc. Allowing for the additional costs at a very conservative rate of €6,000 per annum this would be an addition cost to the exchequer of €104 million a year. All this would cost the State €419 million a year as opposed to the €588 million a year it would cost to keep people employed on average industrial wage of €34,000.
But then you have to consider redundancy payments. As these would have to be agreed by unions a “sweetener” would have to be offered before they would accept it, say six weeks’ pay per year service. Let’s assume all workers have at least five years’ service, so it would result in 30 weeks’ pay. If they were on average industrial wage of €34,000, the total redundancy pay would be approximately €339 million. This figure would increase if duration of service is greater than five years or if people are earning a higher salary.
This means the overall cost to the exchequer would now be at least €758 million.
This report is supposed to be a blueprint for our nation’s survival, but it seems to me a recipe for prolonging the recession by starving the economy of much needed money and demoralising over 17,000 additional workers by placing them on the live register with no hope of being re-employed in the foreseeable future. – Yours, etc,