€5335 for the Dept. of Social protection annual retired staff get together

2ndcoming

Anita Blow wrote: »

I'm sorry but anybody defending a government department spending thousands on a Christmas party for ex-staff in a time of austerity must have a vested interest because there is absolutely no way it can be defended. It is nothing but waste and it represents how out of touch those using taxpayers money are.
I completely understand Christmas parties for current staff, it's important to keep morale high and one party a year as a token of your employer's thanks is fair enough I think. Plenty of Private companies do it.

State funds cannot be used to fund a party for current staff, they have to pay their way themselves. The numbers would obviously be far higher anyway as there are thousands of current staff as opposed to the 240 retired staff members who apparently turned up for this. These parties are held every year in most large depts, and are usually accompanied by a mass for colleagues who passed away that year.

Tbh, I would understand an uproar about a paid party for current staff, but a bunch of 80 year olds having a sandwich and a sherry.. really??

One fraudulent dole claim or one undeclared income or underdeclared tax return would add up to more. Seriously...

Sully

Boombastic wrote: »

€1,000 more spent this year than last year, in times of austerity, no it's not a non story

50 peoples house hold charge
15 carers cut at €325

Doesn't the household charge go to local services? Also, you cant just go and say "Arah, sure we have enough to spend on 15 carers. Screw the rest", so that argument goes out the window.

No your not, we are talking about a department, with a serious backlog and budget deficit shelling out money for ex-staff members to stick their noses int he through

Ex Staff who have paid a heck of a lot more tax than you have and got what, €20 maybe less towards a get together? Its more common in the public sector than you would think and again, I have no issues.

I think maybe you should read the article


Again read the article, until then I won't be reading the rest of your post

My points are still valid. I'm aware the article is saying its former staff but my point still stands.

awec

There is a huge difference between a private company doing this and the public sector. This was public money, they have no entitlement to this whatsoever. This is coming from taxes we are all forced to pay. I don't pay my taxes so that some public sector ex-workers can have a party ffs.

Even if every private company in Ireland did this for it's retired workers it still wouldn't mean that the public sector is entitled to it. You work in the public sector, you aren't the same as private sector workers. In exchange for work-funded parties and various other perks etc you get what seems to be an outrageous level of job security and an inflated salary.

listermint

2ndcoming wrote: »

State funds cannot be used to fund a party for current staff, they have to pay their way themselves. The numbers would obviously be far higher anyway as there are thousands of current staff as opposed to the 240 retired staff members who apparently turned up for this. These parties are held every year in most large depts, and are usually accompanied by a mass for colleagues who passed away that year.

Tbh, I would understand an uproar about a paid party for current staff, but a bunch of 80 year olds having a sandwich and a sherry.. really??

One fraudulent dole claim or one undeclared income or underdeclared tax return would add up to more. Seriously...

Do these people have the inability to organise / pay for this type of thing themselves ?

My mother was let go last week from a company she gave more than 20 years of her life to. Do you think there ex staff will get treated to yearly parties payed for just to say hi ?

When i read the article initially i though sure its a christmas party for hard pressed workers.

Retired staff!!! come on now its a piss take and not a funny one either.

Lyaiera

I'm not usually against this kind of stuff. I'm more than happy for someone retiring after 30 years work to get a bunch of flowers and their immediate department to have a glass of wine in the office/canteen/whatever. But if this was for people who hadn't just retired it's completely unnecessary.

Ush1

Gas that people are defending it. Ex staff FFS.

sfwcork

was the paaaaarttttttyyyyyy held in a hotel or where?

HondaSami

sfwcork wrote: »

was the paaaaarttttttyyyyyy held in a hotel or where?

The department said: ‘All the arrangements necessary to facilitate the function are ­handled in-house by current staff, the catering is arranged with internal caterers at a reasonable rate, the department uses its own premises.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2248843/Joan-Burtons-team-blew-5K-staff-party--Social-Protection-used-taxpayers-money-fund-ex-colleagues.html#ixzz2FJB1YQTo
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Boombastic

The department said: ‘All the arrangements necessary to facilitate the function are ­handled in-house by current staff, the catering is arranged with internal caterers at a reasonable rate, the department uses its own premises.

Apart from the slabs of cans back at the office
Venues also included the church which they paid €250 donation and the €150 for the organist....


The party was 'facilitated' by current inhouse staff...meaning they were taken away from their regular duties to organise it

sfwcork

Seeing as it was mostly jameson and guinness i reckon it was mostly men

so one can conclude from this that joan burton was looking for male loving on the night

was condoms and lub o that bill?

Noel Kinsella

They are not called Civil Serpents for nothing. Snakes every last one of them (In my opinion)

suicide_circus

It's immoral and wrong, plain and simple.
Tax money being used to pay for a PARTY for former employees.....HSE salary increments being paid while the HSE is running 100s of millions deficit....so so so wrong, truly depressing

2ndcoming

listermint wrote: »

Do these people have the inability to organise / pay for this type of thing themselves ?

My mother was let go last week from a company she gave more than 20 years of her life to. Do you think there ex staff will get treated to yearly parties payed for just to say hi ?

When i read the article initially i though sure its a christmas party for hard pressed workers.

Retired staff!!! come on now its a piss take and not a funny one either.

Like most people, you don't have an issue with a paid for Christmas party for current staff. This doesn't happen, and would cost an enormous amount more, regardless of the fact that it seems to be more acceptable to most.

Most of these people are in their 70's and 80's, a lot of them widows with meagre pensions, regardless of what picture the Indo paints, most of them have a pension worth about 8 grand more than the contributory old age pension in exchange for 40 years work. I have no issue with them having a mass and what's basically a tea morning.

There are much more serious wastes of public money than this, it's a non-issue really, a Joe Duffy special.

TwoShedsJackson

Noel Kinsella wrote: »

They are not called Civil Serpents for nothing. Snakes every last one of them (In my opinion)

They're actually not called Civil Serpents at all. Except by you, who seems to think it's the height of wit.

suicide_circus

2ndcoming wrote: »

Like most people, you don't have an issue with a paid for Christmas party for current staff. This doesn't happen, and would cost an enormous amount more, regardless of the fact that it seems to be more acceptable to most.

Most of these people are in their 70's and 80's, a lot of them widows with meagre pensions, regardless of what picture the Indo paints, most of them have a pension worth about 8 grand more than the contributory old age pension in exchange for 40 years work. I have no issue with them having a mass and what's basically a tea morning.

There are much more serious wastes of public money than this, it's a non-issue really, a Joe Duffy special.

nonsense.
If you dont have a vested interest then your grasp on reality is pretty tenuous
In time of recession and hardship, when services and social welfare cuts are the order of the day you CANNOT pay for a ****ing party with public funds.

Noel Kinsella

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

They're actually not called Civil Serpents at all. Except by you, who seems to think it's the height of wit.

Ok "simple servants" does that suit you better ? And as far as your statement "They're actually not called Civil Serpents at all. Except by you, who seems to think it's the height of wit.[/QUOTE]" lots of people I know call them civil serpents.

Theta

What's the problem? These happen all the time, it normally an event for people who have retired that year so that they all get together and get thanked for a long term of service to the department. They did their jobs and there bit and they are getting thanked for it

Whats 5k for 250 people over there lifetime in the department? Say on average they all gave 10 years working there? Whats that? 2E a year per person? Come on lets grow up here. Most of these people will more than likely never see each other again.

Boombastic

Theta wrote: »

What's the problem? These happen all the time

Thats the problem

Theta wrote: »

Most of these people will more than likely never see each other again.

Why? Have they no phones, email, skype, facebook.....?

suicide_circus

Theta wrote: »

What's the problem? These happen all the time, it normally an event for people who have retired that year so that they all get together and get thanked for a long term of service to the department. They did there jobs and there bit and they are getting thanked for it

Whats 5k for 250 people over there lifetime in the department? Say on average they all gave 10 years working there? Whats that? 2E a year per person? Come on lets grow up here. Most of these people will more than likely never see each other again.

The fact that these happen "all the time" does not make the spending of public funds on unnessersary piss ups any less wrong.
The figures you give are also irrelevant. This money is gouged out of the working mans pay check to provide for essential services and social security, not poxy partys.

Ush1

Theta wrote: »

What's the problem? These happen all the time, it normally an event for people who have retired that year so that they all get together and get thanked for a long term of service to the department. They did their jobs and there bit and they are getting thanked for it

Whats 5k for 250 people over there lifetime in the department? Say on average they all gave 10 years working there? Whats that? 2E a year per person? Come on lets grow up here. Most of these people will more than likely never see each other again.

Doesn't matter if it was 1 cent. It's public money going on something beyond frivolous.

And what's this notion people have of wanting the tax they paid back as they've "earned" it and paid so much in. That isn't how taxes work I'm afraid.

Theta

suicide_circus wrote: »

The fact that these happen "all the time" does not make the spending of public funds on unnessersary piss ups any less wrong.
The figures you give are also irrelevant. This money is gouged out of the working mans pay check to provide for essential services and social security, not poxy partys.

How are they irrelevant? The people who the party is for have contributed the "working mans paycheck" that its being gouged from and im sure they wouldn't mind nor do I that 2 euro from the tax they or I have paid every year to be used to thank them at the end of it?

I work in the private sector just so we can make sure that you don't think i'm waiting for my extravagant 20 euro party at the end of my career.

MagicMarker

It's quite unbelievable that anyone can defend such a farcical use of our taxes. It's all the more unbelievable that people are actually saying that because these are OAPS, widows, have "meager" pensions that it's not so bad, that they've more than paid the state back in taxes all these years. I mean seriously, what kind of fucked up retarded logic is this?

Micky Dolenz

Noel Kinsella wrote: »

They are not called Civil Serpents for nothing. Snakes every last one of them (In my opinion)

Noel Kinsella wrote: »

[/S][/S][/U][/I][/I][/B][/B][/B][/B]
Ok "simple servants" does that suit you better ? And as far as your statement "They're actually not called Civil Serpents at all. Except by you, who seems to think it's the height of wit.

" lots of people I know call them civil serpents.[/QUOTE]

Mod

Banned- flaming.

2ndcoming

I'm sure they're all on Facebook. And Zoosk. When their not tweeting? You're aware we're talking about geriatric retirees here?

suicide_circus

Theta wrote: »

How are they irrelevant? The people who the party is for have contributed the "working mans paycheck" that its being gouged from and im sure they wouldn't mind nor do I that 2 euro from the tax they or I have paid every year to be used to thank them at the end of it?

I work in the private sector just so we can make sure that you don't think i'm waiting for my extravagant 20 euro party at the end of my career.

Thats the thing, if your private sector employer wants to throw you a party thats no problem, your employer is a private and presumably profitable enterprise.
The employer in this case, the state, is flat broke and in debt to the tune of many billions. So broke in fact that it cannot afford to provide its services to its customers (we the people) and is operating wholey on borrowed money. This employer cannot afford partys at this time.

Boombastic

2ndcoming wrote: »

I'm sure they're all on Facebook. And Zoosk. When their not tweeting? You're aware we're talking about geriatric retirees here?

Many capable older people use these services and I notice you left out my fist suggestion of telephone. Is it really their ex-employers responsibility to organise their social life for them?

jmayo

mango salsa wrote: »

So what?

A work party for some employees?

Except they weren't employees.

mango salsa wrote: »

5000 euros wouldnt have made up the respite grant!!!

You do know all the 5,000s add up.

But then again you are probably a public servant so basic accounting or more correctly budgetary principles don't apply.

Itsdacraic wrote: »

Shock? Really?

€5k out of a multi-billion euro budget.
Get over it.

As above, all those 5,000s add up and before you know it you have 100,000 or 500,000 and how many people deserving of that money miss out and how many more taxpayers are hit to pay for it.

Yet another apologist for the public sector with an overwhelming sense of entitlement.

MagicMarker wrote: »

It's quite unbelievable that anyone can defend such a farcical use of our taxes. It's all the more unbelievable that people are actually saying that because these are OAPS, widows, have "meager" pensions that it's not so bad, that they've more than paid the state back in taxes all these years. I mean seriously, what kind of fucked up retarded logic is this?

When the fook are people going to challenge public sector/state employees on this lie about how they pay tax and thus are due things in return.
They make themselves out to be net contributors to the system when it is the exact opposite.
Where does the money that pays their salaries comes from in the first place ?
A fair chunk of it comes from taxes on private sector workers and on private sector enterprise.
Take out the private sector contributions and lets see how long the public sector can sustain itself on "their taxes".

Spindle

I can't believe the amount of people defending this!

For one think I have no problem with the public sector in general, I do believe that there is an issue with some over paid management and also there are some areas where people need to work harder or more efficiently, equally there are some underpaid overworked staff there as well, but all that is for another thread.

What I do have an issue with is that 5,000 could employ someone for 2 months, so surely everybody should be refusing to have parties, then with all those savings you might actually be able to higher one or two more front line staff.

Also I don't see how this is a non-issue, waste is waste, when you are up to your eye balls in debt every saving counts. Also when the TDs stand up on their pulpits spewing about we all need to put on the green jumper, put our shoulder to the wheel etc etc, why can't they make the people in their own departments follow the line as well.

Also something which I haven't seen mentioned is why did they have to give the Catholic church a donation!!!! Not really where I want my money to be going, with the legacy they have left behind.

Spindle

jmayo wrote: »

E

When the fook are people going to challenge public sector/state employees on this lie about how they pay tax and thus are due things in return.
They make themselves out to be net contributors to the system when it is the exact opposite.

I never like this public versus private sector debate, it is always a them v us debate. When in fact it should be both private and public working together.

The public sector need the private as much as the private need the public sector.

People in the public sector do pay taxes and should benefit form the same protections as that as private sector employees. The issues are with a few top earners and inefficient management within the public sector. There is also a "this is my job I don't do anything outside of my role attitude" as well that needs to be adjusted.

I do have issue with the the defined benefit pension lot, as they never paid anywhere near enough tax for what their pension plan is worth. I know it is a political nightmare, but they really need to tackle some of those issues.

LivelineDipso

Yakult wrote: »

Its money being pumped backed into the economy

CIVIL SERVANT ALERT.