Savings Suggestions in The Tribune

Lenny Lovett

There's an interesting article in the Tribune that lists savings that would total over €4billion per year and yet not touch the Hospital or Education front line services. It's certainly more sensible than treading on the less fortunate of society:
http://www.tribune.ie/news/home-news/article/2010/oct/31/a-new-kind-of-snip-a-dozen-ways-to-trim-our-public/

silverharp

a friend if mine mentioned the article to me today, obviously hit a chord with people. Suggestions seems reasonable , so obviously wont be acted on

Lenny Lovett

silverharp wrote: »

Suggestions seems reasonable , so obviously wont be acted on

You're probably right. The other thing is that the proposed cuts don't attack the poor, sick and elderly so they definitely won't be carried...:mad:

Godge

Biggest savings are 6, 8 and 9. They are also the most unrealistic. The other savings are achievable but they are small beer. A most uniformed article.

Dorcha

Sounds completely feasible; the only problem is that the people who made them aren't in government. And the rich love their money more than they love anything else, that's the main reason it won't happen. Still, I'd like to see those points put to Brian Lenihan, just to see him wiggle. Vencient Brown might be the man to do it!

AnonymousPrime

Lenny Lovett wrote: »

There's an interesting article in the Tribune that lists savings that would total over €4billion per year and yet not touch the Hospital or Education front line services. It's certainly more sensible than treading on the less fortunate of society:
http://www.tribune.ie/news/home-news/article/2010/oct/31/a-new-kind-of-snip-a-dozen-ways-to-trim-our-public/

They have 1 or 2 good points but most of it is a bit silly.
It also seems to assume our government can run our country. Idiots!

MaceFace

There is probably one or two decent starting points for discussion but almost all of it is just idiotic.

Take one - cut the TD salary to €80k. Most decent business people would have a pay packet far in excess of this amount. It removes an incentive to go into politics and instead we will end up seeing more public servants or failed business people in government.

Cut all senior public servants pay to €100k. So, a TD is supposed to be paid less than a senior public servant? Surely the TD has a lot more responsibility so should be paid a lot more?
Anyways, what are the implications of cutting the salaries by 30%? Would we see a large number go into the private sector and thus the only ones left in the PS are the ones who can't cut it in an unprotected position?

I could go on, but take the most populist with people on boards. Cut the public sector pay by 16%. Will we end up with huge numbers of public servants in serious financial difficulty due to previous (inflated) wages being hammered but debts staying the same. From a pure financial sense, how much more will the State have to pay to these people, directly (welfare supplements, rent relief etc) or indirectly (bank bailouts due to debt defaults)?

How does any of this improve competitiveness for the future?

Tora Bora

Speaking of Tribune cuts, I started a Tribune cut of my own about six months ago. Don't buy it anymore:D It's a shadow of the paper it once was:eek: