Croke Park Must be Revisited

Some time ago I was facilitated by a TD in asking a parliamentary question on savings that could be achieved on a tiered pay reduction basis at the Department of Education and Skills.

The response was quite shocking to me. Protecting those who pay the standard rate of tax from any reductions with a 0% reduction and taking €3.05 per week from a €60,000 gross salary (representing a 0.26% reduction)  or €255.45 per week from a €200,000 gross salary (representing a 6.64% reduction) on an 8 point sliding scale from 0% to 15% a saving of just under €21 million (€21,000,000) can be achieved, that is before freezing increments until 2015 is taken into account, just in ONE department.

So with this in mind I did some sums. Taking into account that these costs are budgeted, they should not be taken solely as a saving to the exchequer. €20.9 million would employ just over 1,000 graduate special needs assistants, almost 600 graduate teachers or provide almost 1 million tutorial hours at third level, yet all of these things are being cut to protect pay and conditions for existing staff.

Does that sound like public service? Just to be clear, I don't begrudge anyone their salary, but the stark reality is we need more frontline public servants than we need to protect the pay of those already employed.

If replicated across the entire public sector, the service levels provided would likely be in for a vast improvement. It's not that we can't afford these things, it's that our government chooses not to take difficult decisions. A pay reduction to just under €187,000 still leaves a substantial salary, more than government ministers, and the new salary of the Taoiseach under such a regime of pay reductions.

I intend on asking a favour again to see what the levels of saving would be in other government departments, state agencies and QUANGOs. I'll blog again when I hear back

Fixing Ireland's 3rd level crisis.

A bit of a long one coming up after a substantial absence.

The answer to Ireland’s third level crisis lies in partnership

I have, for almost three years now, publicly opposed the introduction of fees based on the democratic mandate of students. There is a logical dissonance in arguing for higher quality for free; it doesn’t add up.

The reasoning behind questioning funding is even more pertinent today than it was when I first did so in 2009 through preferendum. State income to the third level sector has been slashed, student numbers are increasing, the HEA pension bill is set to balloon, and pay is protected under the Croke Park Agreement; it doesn’t compute.

I don’t believe in the principle of “free fees” as constituted in Ireland. The simple fact is that anyone would be a fool to; the 'Student Contribution' is set to rise to €3,000 by 2015, with no extra benefit to the third level sector, its students, the deficits and ultimately with no benefit to education.

Over the past three years I have seen standards and services deteriorate, funding collapse and student numbers increase. The Hunt Report Strategy to 2030 cites Policy Options for New Student Contribution (2009) in relation to student fees:

The best model [proposed in the report] is a combination of means-tested grants and student fees, allied to a system of deferred-repayment, income-contingent student loans. This model ensures that at any given time, the amount that a borrower has to repay is proportionate to his or her disposable income. This is achieved by varying the term of the loan – but without excessive penalty to borrowers who take longer to repay. It is proposed that as part of the system, individual students should have the option to pay all or part of the contribution up front.

Academic programmes face the chop (not that all sectoral realignment is a bad thing), research output is under severe pressure. All of this is leading to Ireland’s institutions sliding down the international rankings in terms of academic standards faster than a firefighter down a pole.

Support services keep students in education; they are not just extras that can be discarded, however anything that isn’t teaching related falls ready for the next chop of the axe, with libraries, IT facilities and tutorials in the mix with counselling, learner support units and student advisory.

It is imperative that we explore how students, alumni and state in partnership with industry and philanthropy can successfully fund our institutions into the future. There must now be a move towards endowments for current spending rather than primarily one-off capital spending in the philanthropic area. Most importantly, there must be no cost disincentive or barrier at point of entry, as stated in the Hunt Report.

The key learning from our student forums is that students are willing to pay for higher quality and more supports, but only on the basis that the same commitment, heretofore lacking, comes from government; this will make the bitter pill of fees easier to swallow and appeal to those philanthropists who want to make a difference, not simply make-up a shortfall. The state as co-ordinator, must lead, and must show there is a plan to attract the brightest from overseas and keep Ireland’s brightest here.