Public Servants were targeted in an unfair manner this week. It is not equitable to ask employees to take a pay cut across the board with no thought or reference to the relatively low level of pay that so many of them receive. The fact is that many low paid workers in this sector will only ever receive a state contributory pension when they retire and to say the Government is going to take 3% from the first €15,000 is totally unjustified. I accept that there has to be savings of the order of €2 billion this year but there are more equitable alternatives available to the Government put forward by Fine Gael that have been completely ignored these include:

Pay/increments/bonus freeze in Public Sector €500m
5,000 Redundancies in back office staff €250m
Pay cuts for those earning 100k+ €100m
€850m on payroll
Carbon windfall tax on power generators €300m
€300m on new tax revs
Switching generic drugs for brand name drugs €200m
Elimination and merging of QUANGOS €50m
Closing down further spending on Decentralisation €100m
Overhaul of FAS operations €150m
Reduction in CIE Subvention after intro of competition €100m est
Efficiency reviews & bureaucratic streamlining €200-€250m est
€950m savings/reform

TOTAL €2,000m

It would have been far preferable if the Government started to tackle the waste, excesses and heaving bureaucracy that has plagued state services. FAS is one example that springs to mind and this organisation has escaped any analysis so far.