The end of Mercs and Perks

unkel

At last. No more state cars plus Garda driver 24/7/365 for ex-Taoisigh and presidents and the like. This ridiculous waste of money and Garda resources has finally come to an end.

Article

It's end of the road for 'Mercs and perks'

Wednesday March 16 2011

FORMER Taoiseach Bertie Ahern faces having to sit a driving test after losing his garda-driven State car in last night's overhaul of ministerial travel.

In 2003, Mr Ahern confirmed that he did not hold a driving licence due to his almost continuous use of a State car and driver for the past 20 years.

He could not be contacted for comment last night.

It is understood Mr Ahern first got a driving licence in the 1970s but allowed it to lapse and it is no longer valid.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter will write to Mr Ahern and all former Taoisigh and presidents today about the decision to remove their official car and garda driver in three months as part of a move to save €4m a year.

Senior and junior ministers, the Ceann Comhairle and Attorney General will now have to use their own cars or buy new cars out of their own pockets and hire civilian drivers.

Under the current system, junior ministers use their own cars and each department pays for a civilian driver and provides a mileage allowance. The salary for the driver is in the region of €30,000.

Garda drivers and state cars will be retained only for the President, the Taoiseach, the Tanaiste and the Justice Minister, for security reasons. The Chief Justice and the current Director of Public Prosecutions will also retain their cars.

The overhaul spells an end to the era of "Mercs and perks".

Former Taoisigh such as Mr Ahern and Brian Cowen will now have to make applications for use of an official car for "important state occasions".

Mr Ahern now faces having to employ a driver out of his own pocket, using public transport or sitting a driving test to travel around the country.

Fine Gael's original plans for carpooling between former Taoisigh, former Presidents and current ministers were scrapped yesterday.

Costs

Under the old system, a ministerial car cost around €280,000 per minister every year in salary costs, fuel and maintenance.

The changes will cut multimillion costs in half -- largely because garda salaries used to take up 84pc of the costs. The bill between 2008 and 2009 was around €11m.

The Department of Justice previously implemented a rule of replacing vehicles which are two years old or have in excess of 100,000 miles on the clock.

But none of the cars has been replaced since 2008, when 11 new vehicles cost €509,675.

The new arrangements will come into effect for ministers by May 1, and in three months in the case of former Taoisigh and Presidents.

- ine Kerr Political Correspondent

Irish Independent

cruizer101

Great news, although I think the actual cash savings may not be as high as said, due to the fact the garda drivers, which was main part of expense, still have to be paid. Its not like they will just be let go, they will obviousy be redeployed elsewhere do actual policework. Good to hear anyway.

Tea 1000

I'm delighted for that sh*thead Bertie. Delighted for the other loosers too, but mostly for Bertie! Hope he fails his test.

MidlandsM

its not about the savings, its about the optics/perception of it all.

Glad to see this happen........did anyone see the Skoda Ad in the Paper at the weekend offering the government 5 free skoda octavia's to replace the mercs?

Atlantic Dawn

cruizer101 wrote: »

Great news, although I think the actual cash savings may not be as high as said, due to the fact the garda drivers, which was main part of expense, still have to be paid. Its not like they will just be let go, they will obviousy be redeployed elsewhere do actual policework. Good to hear anyway.

Yes they will still be paid but it should mean that other Gardai who were covering their work should now not be required so perhaps a reduction in overtime to those covering the work.

What happens to the now unused portion of the fleet, were they leased and simply go back or were they purchased and will they end up being sold at mates rates to supporters or will they go to auction? I'd loved to get my hands on a well serviced barge at a knock down price.

Riskymove

cruizer101 wrote: »

Great news, although I think the actual cash savings may not be as high as said, due to the fact the garda drivers, which was main part of expense, still have to be paid. Its not like they will just be let go, they will obviousy be redeployed elsewhere do actual policework. Good to hear anyway.

in addition to the drivers still be paid (at higher rates) to do other Garda jobs, the Ministers will be given the cost of hiring two civilian drivers each

so the net saving is very small...as said its mostly about optics

squod

They're removing the guards posted on his house also AFAIK. I'm off to buy three ton of rotten eggs.

Atlantic Dawn

Riskymove wrote: »

in addition to the drivers still be paid (at higher rates) to do other Garda jobs, the Ministers will be given the cost of hiring two civilian drivers each

so the net saving is very small...as said its mostly about optics

I suppose if the drivers they take were previously on the dole that will be a saving in social welfare and if the drivers are in employment other drivers on the dole will take their place.

Anan1

Riskymove wrote: »

in addition to the drivers still be paid (at higher rates) to do other Garda jobs, the Ministers will be given the cost of hiring two civilian drivers each

so the net saving is very small...as said its mostly about optics

Not according to the article:

wrote:

Senior and junior ministers, the Ceann Comhairle and Attorney General will now have to use their own cars or buy new cars out of their own pockets and hire civilian drivers.

BlackWizard

So all ministers and presidents get expenses to cover hiring two civilian drivers? Seems a bit much.

MidlandsM

The garda's who were drivers were on €77k per annum and a week on/week off roster.

bijapos

squod wrote: »

They're removing the guards posted on his house also AFAIK. I'm off to buy three ton of rotten eggs.

Sound job. I'll get the van started and give yiz a hand.:pac:

MidlandsM

MidlandsM wrote: »

The garda's who were drivers were on €77k per annum and a week on/week off roster.

That's absurd :eek: €77K for a Garda driver.

unkel

RoverJames wrote: »

That's absurd :eek: €77K for a Garda driver.

That's only the half of it. €77k in gross salary translates to at least €100k in costs and that's only allowing for a tiny overhead (admin, management, buildings, etc.). That's for one Garda. On a typical Garda roster, there are 3 shifts of 8 hours per day. So 3*7 = 21 shifts per week. Plus holidays and sick leave that's about 25 shifts per week. That's 5 Gardai doing 5 shifts a week. So roughly €500,000 is the cost of having ONE driver 24/7/365.

no1beemerfan

For some reason the thing that makes me the happiest about this is Bertie not keeping his car and driver. Oh how I would love to be left alone in a room with him even for 5 minutes........:mad:

glengirlie

Delighted that this is coming in and they are losing their cars and perks etc but the only thing is when reading it in detail, they seem to have a lot of admin staff and clearly not very effective. Esp the Junior Ministers, they may be need to cut a bit more with them.

Also, does the DPP not enjoy the same perks as the AG in relation to having a state car and driver?

ShadowHearth

Jesus....is that for real.....

Too good to be for real....

Just shows how much money is wasted by them... Not sort out all the dole harvesters, who havent worked a day in theyr life and claim every single benefit of government.

You will see. Ireland will be + after that...

ottostreet

Who is making the cuts? Enda Kenny?

Is it just me or is there a real sense that things ARE changing for the better already?

BaronVon

unkel wrote: »

That's only the half of it. €77k in gross salary translates to at least €100k in costs and that's only allowing for a tiny overhead (admin, management, buildings, etc.). That's for one Garda. On a typical Garda roster, there are 3 shifts of 8 hours per day. So 3*7 = 21 shifts per week. Plus holidays and sick leave that's about 25 shifts per week. That's 5 Gardai doing 5 shifts a week. So roughly €500,000 is the cost of having ONE driver 24/7/365.

That's incorrect. The ministerial drivers are paid a premium, 40% of basic salary. This covers overtime and unsocial hours. So the 77k is the only payment they receive, for working a week on/week off basis, which could mean working 16 hours a day, every day.

Stinicker

A super idea by Kenny and one which gives brilliant public kudos to the party. Better still it allows for the boot to be firmly stuck into Fianna Fail and is a personal blow to some of their traitors who ran us into the ground before.


Liam Cosgrave is 91 and possibly in a home, he won't have much use for a state car and bodyguard, most people have never heard of him. This has no real effect on him or the FG Party.

Garret Fitzgerald is 85 and has little use for it either, He will be taken care of in other ways, again this has now effect on the Modern FG party.

John Bruton is 63, used his car rarely and was EU Ambassador to the US until 1999, so would not have used it so much. He will be the next President of Ireland this November so will have his car back then.

Albert Reynolds, Ahern and Cowen three traitors who'd milk the system for what its worth, kicking them off the grazy train was nice and especially sweet since Ahern doesn't even have a driving licence.

Enda Kenny himself will be Taoiseach for the next ten years and will probably go for President after that, he has his head screwed on and it was a masterclass of positive PR and screwing his arch enemies at the same time.

iMax

ottostreet wrote: »

Who is making the cuts? Enda Kenny?

Is it just me or is there a real sense that things ARE changing for the better already?

There absolutely is a sense of that. However (much as I hate to paraphrase FF), while there's a lot done, but more to do.

Ministerial salaries, pensions & perks need to be cut again, this should be a regular occurrence. Bring them more in line with the public.

They also need to cut the levels of administration & red tape that's costing money in the likes of the health service.

Unions also need to be brought in line. THere's over 400k people unemployed in the country, if your union says you can't do the job without being compensated, get out of the way & we'll give your job to someone else.

We need action taken in the financial sector also, if they're paying bonuses to employees while getting a bailout, reduce the amount they get by twice the bonus.

Civil engineering needs to be done on a reward /penalty system. We know how much infrastructure costs in terms of manpower & materials, so if you 're taking on a job, you get rewarded for completion early & penalised for completion late.

The S/W system needs to be overhauled, more encouragement to get business up & running. Community schemes need to be started whereby if you're signing on, you are employed two days a week to do work in your community, cleaning graffiti/streets/parks/painting/planting whatever needs to be done. There's loads of things that need doing that we're told there's no funds for staffing, well we're paying people to do nothing right now, lets get the country working quite literally. Give people personal pride & pride in their community.

I'm hopeful that we'll see some good things come out of this government (although I didn't vote FG), they're looking like they could be great.

mondeo

Bertie b@stard will have to pay his own road tax and insurance now. If he fails his driving test it will be on observation! I'm going to drink to that on Patricks night:) superb!

mickdw

I can see a bertie legal challenge coming up given that he now knows he has no chance of presidency. I guess an argument could be made that any changes can only be from now on so in effect the first taoiseach not to retain a state car on leaving office would be Enda Kenny.

Riskymove

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

I suppose if the drivers they take were previously on the dole that will be a saving in social welfare and if the drivers are in employment other drivers on the dole will take their place.

from current experience it tends to be some friend, relation or party member given a job although they may be unemplyed in this case...but could also be retired

Not according to the article:

they have to buy their own car but they will get funding for hiring drivers (as is the current case for Junior Ministers)

Riskymove

ottostreet wrote: »

Who is making the cuts? Enda Kenny?

Is it just me or is there a real sense that things ARE changing for the better already?

I guess these populist optics work!!:)

Rallyxtom

I think it will be interesting to see if these posts are even advertised. As for taking people off the dole, what will be the criteria for these positions? Probably ex-Garda, ex-Army or will these drivers be from professional bodygaurd agency.
If these positions do become available for the general public where the minister pays it will also be interesting to see the salaries on offer. Fas work placement programme!

The moratorium on new positions in the HSE has only proved to be a farce. They use agency workers costing the tax payer two and a half times as much as just taking on nurses on a temporary contract basis. Who runs these agencies anyway, no doubt there is a connection somewhere. There are no shortage of Golden Circles in this country!

Seriously though what would be the requirements for these positions and who will appoint drivers, who will resource, roster, do the pay role? Or is it another department being set up to create jobs for the boys in admin? 40 drivers and about 60 executives upstairs doing not very much. An agency creaming off the top and the drivers not being paid very much?

The details are not out yet and I don't mean to be skeptical but.........

Riskymove

Rallyxtom wrote: »

I think it will be interesting to see if these posts are even advertised. As for taking people off the dole, what will be the criteria for these positions?

there is no criteria, the Ministers can hire whover they want, as they are the employer. they wont be centrally contracted public servants

Rallyxtom

Ok, so the pay rate will be decided by each minister or are they allocated expenses for drivers.
There does not seem to be much transparency as of yet.
I don't mean to be seen as negative, I think this is a great move.

unkel

infacteh wrote: »

That's incorrect. The ministerial drivers are paid a premium, 40% of basic salary. This covers overtime and unsocial hours. So the 77k is the only payment they receive, for working a week on/week off basis, which could mean working 16 hours a day, every day.

You're forgetting about holiday and sick leave. So instead of 2 drivers per car, there are nearly 3 (54 regular drivers plus 20 relief drivers). And as I said, the €77k is what the Gardai are getting in gross salary. The total cost per Garda is a lot higher than that, because of the overheads. But just in terms of salary, that's €77k times 74 drivers is €6 million per year. Wasted. The high earners who used to get the state cars can easily afford their own transport. In Holland ministers cycle to work.

Atlantic Dawn

MidlandsM wrote: »

its not about the savings, its about the optics/perception of it all.

Glad to see this happen........did anyone see the Skoda Ad in the Paper at the weekend offering the government 5 free skoda octavia's to replace the mercs?

http://new.skoda-auto.com/IRL/about/info/news/News/Pages/Attention.aspx

To demonstrate their commitment to the idea, Škoda Ireland offered the Taoiseach five new Škoda Superbs on a free three-month trial with no further obligation required from his government.

Esel

Good to see that Inda or one of his flunkies reads Boards.

Optics is optics at the end of the day.....

Vanderbilt

http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/3145166

UNRESERVED GARDA MERCEDES AUCTION



We have been instructed by An Garda Siochana to sell a Large Selection of Cars by Unreserved Public Auction.

Public UNRESERVED Auction at Wilsons Auctions, Exit 2 Off The Naas Road, Citywest, Dublin 22

Entries to include:

3 X 2002 Mercedes E240

1 X 2002 Mercedes E280

1 X 2002 Mercedes E320

1 X 2003 Mercedes E240

3 X 2004 Mercedes E240

2 X 2004 Mercedes E320

3 X 2005 Mercedes E240

2 X 2005 Lexus GS300

These will be sold through 3 different auctions, Tuesday 27th March at 7pm, Tuesday 3rd April at 7pm, Tuesday 10th April at 7pm.

Full Details on http://www.wilsonsauctions.com/dublincarstuesday.asp

Garda Motorbikes to be sold Thursday 5th April at 7pm

Price: not specified
CONTACT TRADER

Max Power1

Hmm cant see most of those listed in the auction catalogue

A good buy, I'd say the cars would have been serviced by the book despite the high miles

Johntegr

Knowing him he'll probably think he can just jump into any car without a license and get away with it.

Go get your book stamped with an ADI. There's no L plates big enough for him IMO.

Anan1

I dunno who everyone's blaming Bertie - he didn't come to power in a coup.

redman

what about the drivers we pay for that cover the British Ambassador et al to be escorted up and down our bus lanes each day?

Basil Fawlty

You can thank Sinn Fein for that one.

slapstick

here`s de de de de de Bert behind the wheel of his car. it`s funny how when we were paying for his wheels only mercs were good enough, now he`s buying his own car he buys an 08 reg`d mondeo , that`s if he bought it at all i suppose , could be another dig out from de lads

Padraig Mor

Details of the cars to be auctioned are here. Won't get much for them I'd say! Soon to be seen on Donedeal minus their sky high mileage......