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
