Public sector workers have been warned to expect further cuts in the near future despite the publication of a new report which details savings following the Croke Park agreement.
The first official review of the agreement on public service pay and reform found the deal has made “solid and measurable progress” in meeting its commitments.
However, it warns there will have to be “more urgency and ambition” around the implementation of changes needed to maintain services and also secure further significant expenditure and payroll savings.
It says “across and within all sectors progress must be significantly accelerated by all parties if implementation of the agreement is to continue to be judged as being on-track over the next reporting period”.
Following publication of the review this morning, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin warned further cuts can be expected.
“In view of the severe fiscal constraints we face, the reality is that further significant cuts in expenditure, coupled with further substantial reductions in the numbers employed in the public service, are unavoidable,” he said.
Since 2008 a total of 16,400 people had left the public service and the Programme for Government envisaged that between 18,000 and 21,000 more would leave between 2010 and 2014, and another 4,000 in 2015.
Mr Howlin pointed out that the terms of the EU-IMF bail-out meant that, "if we don't get the savings voluntarily, then we have to resort again to pay-cuts".
But he stressed that this was "the bottom of the Government's agenda, that's a place we don't want to go to, but we have to have thesavings, it's as simple, as compelling as that".
Mr Howlin also warned workers that more was needed from them under the deal to bring about urgent reforms of the sector.
“We need to move forward quickly to build on the important progress that has been achieved to date and accelerate the delivery and implementation of urgently needed reform,” he said.
The Croke Park report, which was drawn up by the body charged with overseeing the implementation of the agreement, has found that savings of €289 million were made on the State’s pay bill since the agreement was put in place one year ago.
This was mainly due to a reduction of 5,349 on the numbers employed in the public service. The report also says that overtime costs are down 5.2 per cent.
The largest reduction in employment was in the health sector which saw staffing levels fall by 4,180, generating savings of €238 million.
The review found Government departments and agencies had generated non-pay savings of €308 million in areas such as property rationalisation and procurement efficiencies.
The report also says costs of €85.7 million which would have been incurred if the agreement was not in place, had been avoided.
The body concluded that, in the first year of this four-year agreement the parties to the agreement had made solid and measurable progress in meeting their commitments.
It found:
* in the period under review numbers have fallen substantially more quickly than previously estimated and services have been maintained and in some cases expanded and productivity has increased
* the cost of delivering public services has fallen in a sustainable way, primarily through reducing headcount across the public service, enabling the State to meet its external economic and fiscal commitments
* thousands of staff have been re-deployed, including across functional boundaries, which helped to meet two challenges, avoiding gaps in service as numbers reduced and changing the way in which public services are delivered
* the reconfiguration of services has commenced
The report warns that the Government has given a commitment that it will generate savings of at least €1.2 billion on the public service pay and pensions bill by 2014. To achieve this target the report says it is imperative that savings and efficiencies are delivered urgently while at the same time ensuring that quality public services are maintained.
For this to happen “productivity in the use of resources will have to be greatly increased in 2011 through revised work practices, fundamental reform, more shared services, organisational restructuring across the system and greater innovation and flexibility, including much greater availability of online services.
“In addition the Body fully expects that the development of an accelerated public service reform agenda will present additional challenges which will have to be met in the latter half of 2011”.
The review body expressed concern at the "lack of significant progress" in key areas such as the delivery of shared or consolidated services in administrative areas for example dealing with application processing, ICT and human resources, pay and pension administration and in the sharing of information across Government agencies to reduce the burdens on individuals and businesses.
"There will also need to be a priority put on the efficient use of all State property so that the volume of resources used to deliver services will continue to fall"