Yes, Minister! How the civil service Sir Humphrys pull wool over our eyes
The classic old TV series Yes, Minister was about how wily civil servant Sir Humphry outmanoeuvred his naïve politician boss (representing the public) to preserve the considerable perks, powers and privileges enjoyed by himself and his ilk.
Well Sir Humphry would be jealous of his Irish counterparts!
British public servants earned a mere €658 a week on average last year.
That’s about €100 more than their private sector – well done Sir Humphry – enough to stir up a regular furore over there.
But it’s in the ha’penny place compared to our lot, who get €906 a week, a premium of around 40% over our private sector - and all the Sir Humphrys across the water!
Our top civil servants pocket up to a maximum of €185,000 a year – more than the leaders of the vast majority of countries, even in Europe.
That’s for a high-flying Secretary General, who rivals the Taoiseach’s pay. But deputy and assistant secretaries are on up to €156k and €136k respectively and even Principal officers pocket nearly €100k.
Yet what would really impress Sir Humphry is our byzantine system of allowances that covertly bump up pay across the public sector and fool the public into thinking it is lower than it really is.
There are hundreds ofover 1,000 allowances for buying footwear and underwear (!), putting stamps on letters, replacing the toner in a photocopier and maintaining your bicycle, to name but a few.
There are clothing allowances worth hundreds a year and some departments pay a child allowance to certain staff.
The guards, true masters of the dark arts of State bureaucracy, have over 100 allowances on the books.
They even have allowances to compensate them for not getting allowances – when working abroad or at a desk for example.
Our system is so shady that even the minister for justice Frances Fitzgerald doesn’t know how much it adds to garda remuneration.
In reply to a Dail question she responded that unsocial hours payments alone add “an amount between 25% and 30% to garda earnings.”
But getting to the bottom of how well guards and teachers are really paid is important as strikes by both sectors over pay loom.
The Public Accounts Committee described the system of allowances as bringing “discredit to the legitimate expectations of public servants for proper pay and recognition”.
A report by it said that the proliferation of allowances “does not meet the expectation of the taxpayer for a modern, transparent and flexible pay system”.
That was in 2012 when the extremity of the public finances crisis inspired calls for a “root and branch” reform of allowances.
Some were done away with – such as garda allowances for “not having allowances” and teachers allowances for having a degree, i.e. being qualified for their jobs.
But that was only for new entrants; these juicy perks still apply to the majority. And many most of the €1.5bn allowances are still in operationbill still applies.
The attempt at reform was rebuffed with a Sir Humphry-esque war of bureaucratic attrition and endless attention to the pettiest detail.
In one report, it was argued at length how uniformed gardai need allowances for wearing uniforms, while detectives need another one for buying “plain clothes” because they had to “blend in” with everyone else. Or how guards need their rent paid because they could be transferred anywhere in the country.
But doesn’t everyone else have to buy “plain clothes” and pay rent too!
In the private sector, employees would often take on an interesting new task without a quibble.
Gardai and teachers seem to get a wide range of allowances that in the case of teachers, seem particularly lucrative, and in the case of guards, seem particularly numerous.
Increments, which see public pay rise automatically every year in addition to any cost of living increases, is another perk.
A teacher’s starting salary may be €31,000 (for those starting after February 2012) but that’s not far off average pay in the private sector (€35k).
The salary goes up by an average of €1,160 a year through annual increments until it reaches €59,940.
Added to this are many allowances, including up to €8,250 for special or assistant principal duties and €22,645 for “posts of responsibility”.
A promotion to principal brings an extra salary of up to €40,000 - i.e. potentially topping €100,000 overall.
According to the latest CSO figures, the Education sector recorded the highest average hourly earnings in public sector of €37.89, while also showing the lowest hours worked of 23.9 hours.
Second were An Garda Siochána with average hourly earnings of €30.52.
Some teachers are paid less than their peers.
But that due to an earlier agreement that does neither side credit. The unions sold out their future colleagues and the Government foolishly created a situation that would inevitably lead to conflict later on, although it has also agreed to redress that.
But the extent of the pay plight of both new muinteoiri and gardai is also exaggerated.
The pay for new recruits isn’t that bad considering what private sector workers earn when they begin their careers – which is sometimes little or nothing, as interns.
Garda starting pay of €24k is usually bumped up to €31k on average by the end of year one.
If they accepted Lansdowne, a teacher recruited in 2013 could be on over €40,000 after allowances – and get a career-long extra €135k.new teachers would start on more than €40,000 next year.
The striking unions want more.
If we comply and agree to full restoration of pre-2008 pay and conditions that would cost €2.5bn a year.
It would mean nearly doublinga 60% hike in USC, or breaching EU borrowing rules.
It would make nonsense of the budget whose figures are based on the public sector accepting the Lansdowne Road deal.
Don’t be fooled into thinking Ireland is economically ‘on the pig’s back’ now that we’ve weathered a brutal recession.
Our amazingly-high economic growth figures are unreal. They’re based on multinationals shunting lots of assets here to avoid tax – so called leprecheconomics.
In many ways, we’re in a worse position than before the crisis with over €200bn borrowings now hanging over us - and Brexit threatening up to 30% of jobs that rely on exports to the UK.
Now is not the time to return State spending to the heady days of 2008.
Incredibly, the private sector isn’t objecting to public sector getting paid so much more than them.
Few are even saying that teachers and guards don’t deserve a pay rise.
All we’re saying is please accept the substantial rise – by our standards - offered under the Lansdowne Road agreement.
And please don’t throw the country into chaos so you can get a round of extra pay increases which, if granted, would create financial chaos.
Even Sir Humphry, a patriot at heart for all his faults, wouldn’t do that!