WORKING CONDITIONS:THE GOVERNMENT will not pay extra to civil and public servants in order that they concede major changes in working conditions, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said yesterday.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said the reforms would make it easier to fire poorly performing State workers.
Speaking after the launch of the reform package, he said: "I don't think that it is necessary to suggest that you can only get change on the basis that you have to pay for it."
State employees have "well-paid employment, with good pensions and a greater degree of security of employment than exists in the private sector presently and for the foreseeable future", he said.
Rejecting accusations that the Government has been slow to drive through reforms, the Taoiseach said: "It is unfair to suggest that there hasn't been change in the public service up to now.
"You have to be fair about what has been achieved up to now. It is not right to suggest that for the last 11, or 20, or 30 years, that there hasn't been change in the public service. Of course there has."
He believed State workers will seize opportunities to be offered by the Transforming Public Services programme.
Mr Cowen and Mr Lenihan refused to put a figure on the numbers of redundancies that will be caused by implementation of the plan.
Next year, the Taoiseach said, Ministers have been told to cut the payroll bill for their departments and agencies by 4 per cent, which equates to 10,000 jobs.
"That is a start. That is a beginning. That is an efficiency audit in itself," said Mr Cowen, after the launch of the plan in Dublin Castle.
Asked whether the plan would make it easier to fire underperformers, the Minister for Finance told The Irish Times: "Yes. Clearly that is an issue that has to be developed in the context of setting up a proper assessment of performance.
"You have to have a proper procedure to assess performance so as to ensure that those who are not matching up are dealt with," he said.
Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe, he added, "had signalled a major advance" in recent days regarding an agreement with teaching unions on rules to govern dismissals from schools.
Questioned about the size of the State's pension bill, he said he had already "signalled our determination" to have "a focused discussion" with trade unions next year on the matter.
"But it is not the first priority of the Government because it is not a massive pressure point in public expenditure at this point in time," he said.
