Public Service – Eamonn Blaneys Website

Public Service workers must be let go – A proposal.

October 18, 2010 eblaney

My proposal for removing up to 100,000 public servants is relatively straightforward although it will have to be accompanied by substantial reforms in work practices, promotion policy, pension entitlements and attitude. For example, the defined benefit, indexed linked pension scheme is simply too expensive for our country to afford for the foreseeable future. The abolition of this pension must include all public servants whether employed now, in the past or in the future. If new legislation or constitutional amendment is required to make this happen, then so be it. The fact that there are people who retired over ten years ago and are presently receiving pension that are actually higher now than their salary they were on when they left, is outrageous. [Read More]

Public job cuts will be worth the pain – Sunday Indo 26/9/2010

September 26, 2010 eblaney

No doubt you are sick of listening to the radio, watching the television or reading newspapers and getting nothing but bad economic news.

Unfortunately, this is happening because our Government — and many of us — closed our eyes and ears to the reality of what was unfolding before the meltdown. The priority now is to resolve it the best we can and as quickly and as equitably as possible. To do so is going to require some major decisions, all of which will have substantial and far-reaching consequences for every one of us.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan should immediately tell us what options he considered prior to the bank guarantee scheme and the implications of each. Not once, since this crisis began, have we been treated like adults and told exactly what options were considered. Instead, we were told the bank guarantee scheme is the only show in town, with no explanation whatsoever. Suspiciously, none of the other options (if any) have been discussed publicly by the Government. [Read More]

Budget, How Are Ya ?

December 8, 2009 eblaney

Why the public outcry over what will be the ‘most draconian’ budget in the history of the State ? The reason I ask is assuming that it does make it through the Dail vote all that it will have achieved is getting an additional €4 Billion into our public piggy bank. ‘ €4 billion, that’s an enormous amount of additional revenue” ? I hear you cry. It is enormous but it is not nearly enough. Unfortunately, since I pointed out in a previous posting (economic-civil-war-revisited ) the actual amount of our debt has increased by a further €8 Billion, simply because the Government did not act back in February when they knew the scale of the problem. If that’s not bad enough, next years spending will increase by an additional €5 Billion compared to this year ! [Read More]