Howlin seeks 7,500 additional redundancies before 2014 – Fleming

Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Public Expenditure Seán Fleming has called on Minister Brendan Howlin to make it clear to public servants voting on the Croke Park 2 agreement that he is determined to achieve 7,500 redundancies across the public service by the end of 2014.

Deputy Fleming commented, “We currently have 290,000 public servants and the Labour Party Minister is leading the charge to reduce this figure to 282,500 by the end of 2014. The original target was to achieve this figure by 2015, but Minister Howlin and his Labour colleagues have sold out on everything they promised before the general election and are now spear-heading this campaign against public servants.

“Minister Howlin has previously mentioned a targeted redundancy programme which is commencing in the Departments of Health, Education and Agriculture. This is to achieve up to 5,000 redundancies.  These are not mentioned in the Croke Park 2 document, but as a separate government policy running in parallel with this process. As part of the Croke Park 2 document, the Minister wants to achieve an additional 2,500 redundancies bringing the total redundancies by the end of 2014 to 7,500.

“It is extraordinary that the Government should invest so much energy in spinning its ‘Jobs Initiative’ while at the same time seeking to make 7,500 people redundant in the public service, thereby reducing the number of people at work in Ireland.

“It is time this Government stopped talking through both sides of its mouth. It is talking up the Jobs Initiative on the one hand, while slashing 7,500 jobs on the other hand,” Deputy Fleming said.