Soooo many of these payouts?

ZMOONY

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/top-civil-servant-in-minister-catherine-martins-department-of-media-got-severance-payment-of-219000/a540246826.html

https://www.thejournal.ie/national-gallery-employee-200000-severance-pay-2022-6329230-Mar2024/

what is the story with the rules allowing so much of this?

And then on the other end of the scale you have delivery drivers legally been paid 1 euro an euro?

https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-41331658.html

And just basic explotation of the lower paid with the likes of 6 months contracts for what should be permanent roles and rampant wage theft and a toothless understaffed WRC.

MegamanBoo

I know there's plenty of decent hard working people in public services.

But it does look that there's plenty being allowed take the utter p**s as well.

Do other European countries have this problem?

bop1977

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121907073#Comment_121907073

well there is some young one who was promoted to the house of lords at the age of 27 even though she does feck all.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68259178

NIMAN

I'd say there is a lot of similar stories in other countries, can't be just us.

There's corruption and the rich looking after the rich/their mates happening everywhere.

Cluedo Monopoly

An inept public servant for an inept minister gets a golden handshake. The message is that being inept at highest level brings rewards.

KaneToad

The lady in question was a secretary general of a govt dept. This is a position with a salary 230k-258k.

The article is unclear what the severance is? Is it a just a retirement lump sum - which would be high due to the salary. Mind you, the pic looks like a woman not of retiring age.

Was it a case of a redundancy payment? Did Martin's department merge any former standalone govt depts, thereby making this Sec Gen position redundant?

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121907245#Comment_121907245

This is not a redundancy

KaneToad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121907260#Comment_121907260

Oh, ok. Why the severance payment? Early incentivised and retirement scheme?

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121908066#Comment_121908066

My take - so that she doesn't take an unfair dismissals case and drags Martin through the press again.

The role has not gone away. She was essentially fired. They make it appear mutual. This kind of thing happens a lot in public service.

KaneToad

But she left this position before all this controversy arose. Are you speculating that she was helped out the door more than a year ago due to clashes with the Minister??

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121908088#Comment_121908088

Yes. Martin has been floundering for a year. Licken left earlier this year (January). Same thing happened recently with a HSE exec.

Unfair dismissals are 2 years worth of salary absolute max. These severance payments often equate to that or near it. It's a silencer.

And it's disgusting politics.

KaneToad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121908098#Comment_121908098

Interesting.

What scheme did they cloak her departure under? You can't just get rid of a civil servant in that manner.

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121908106#Comment_121908106

Makey uppey one off redundancy/restructuring. Everybody in her dept knows she is the only one. There were no other redundancies in HSE either yet that lad got 400k.

FG promised to reform all this stuff many moons ago.

Dean Sullivan is the HSE guy. Read those comments, same spoof.

Lewis_Benson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058341753/soooo-many-of-these-payouts

Where did you see that a delivery driver had been paid 1 euro an hour? And is that driver still being paid 1 euro an hour?

It's not always incompetents sometime it's a clash or they want someone else that they feel would be a better fit.

Despite the outside perseption of the civil service no one goes that far with out having something to offer.

Gregor Samsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121908109#Comment_121908109

There was clearly no “one off redundancy” or “restructuring” in Licken’s case, though.

Licken was the Secretary General of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. The role clearly still exists in the exact same form it did previously. She was replaced by Feargal Ó Coigligh, who is the current Secretary General of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Redundancy means that the role is eliminated - which it clearly is not. Restructuring means that the team structure is changing that causes a role or roles to be redundant - which again can’t have happened in this case.

You can’t somehow hide the removal of the very top Civil Servant in a Government department behind “restructuring” - because the structure exists in plain sight, and that position is the very top of it.

There must have been an actual reason for her going.

L.Ball

Damn I need to become a civil servant and f*ck up so much that they pay me 6 figures to fire me.

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121908328#Comment_121908328

I don't know how they spin it but she was effectively fired. To prevent her going to the WRC with all the dirty laundry, they paid her off. Mutual agreement.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121908328#Comment_121908328

Secretaries General aren't on standard civil servant contracts. They are on fixed term contracts (5 years or 7 years, I can't quite remember). There is a provision for this kind of payout if they leave their post before the contract expires, probably to cover situations like the merging of two departments as a result of a government decision.

I'm not sure if she chose to leave or was asked to leave.

deirdremf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121907245#Comment_121907245

I wonder what it is that makes a person like this worth 10 times the minimum wage?

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121909503#Comment_121909503

This will give you some idea

https://www.iea.ie/2021/05/27/vacancy-secretary-general-department-of-public-expenditure-and-reform/

AlanG

The system to pay a years salary to Sec Generals who reached their 7 years was brought up some time ago and no one was really objecting. In the past a sec general stayed to retirement age but the gov decided it would be better to give them a 7 year term (which many people agree is good to keep ideas fresh). Combine that with merit based instead of seniority based promotion (which many people called for) and you have a problem of people in their early 50's reaching then end of a 7 year term as Sec General. What are the government to do with these people if Seg gen roles are now merit based as you cant just move them sideways - should a person in their 50's be forced out of work without a full pension just because they managed to get promoted to Sec General in their 40's. The solution was a payment of 1 years salary.

It may not be perfect but what are the alternatives.

mvt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121913722#Comment_121913722

They are not forced out of work- they willingly took on a seven year fixed contract.

Maybe & I know this might be upsetting for them but they could get a job outside the civil service.

Gregor Samsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121913722#Comment_121913722

Thanks for the explanation.

Very disingenuous of The Indo not to explain that it's a standard part of the contract. The article makes it look like there's underhand shenanigans going on.

hoodie6029

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121907178#Comment_121907178

And Tony Blair elevated anyone with a heartbeat to the Lords. They’re all still there, eligible to claim £300 a day for every time they attend during the term.