New allowance cuts must be directed towards existing public sector employees

In the context of current discussions surrounding the payment of allowances to the public sector, I believe that any new saving measures adopted must not target new entrants and must be focussed on existing high earners in the civil service. If we look at the long term impact, the current process is creating a structural problem that will undermine the public sector in the years to come.

The industrial peace that we think we are securing with the Croke Park Agreement is only temporary. If the current approach continues – that of directing cuts exclusively at new entrants – it could destroy the fabric of the public sector within ten years. If we are serious about making actual savings we need to tackle allowances for high earners in the public sector now.

The PAC has agreed to my suggestion that we invite in the heads of department to present the business cases for allowances directly to the Oireachtas. It would be very helpful for the Public Accounts Committee to have more than just the business cases made by Departments as to why certain allowances should be kept. To be effective we also need to have first-hand knowledge from inside the system as to how the allowances are used in practice, and whether they are necessary and/or appropriate.

As part of the PAC examination, I am asking the public, especially members of the public sector, to provide first-hand insight into how certain allowances are used. Since I raised the issue I have already been informed of a number of practices that are of concern to individuals within the public sector.

Of course, some allowances may prove to be objectively necessary and appropriate, and the direct knowledge of those working in the public sector will be helpful in identifying these also.

It’s time to end all the speculation and to have an open and honest debate about the choices facing government departments as we approach this most difficult of budgets. There is too much speculation in the public, because of the information vacuum, and it causing too much uncertainty.

This Government committed in the Programme for Government to opening up the budgetary process ‘to the full glare of public scrutiny’. Last December I asked Minister Howlin in the Public Accounts Committee about reforming the process, to which he replied that ‘the notion of someone coming into the Chamber to read out the secrets decided by Cabinet is crazy. We need to have much more public debate about the process.’ It is time now to honour these commitments.

The new committee could begin by meeting with the independent Fiscal Advisory Council, established by this government to independently help guide the budgetary process, and proceed from there, examining all issues: possible tax increases, reductions in social welfare, proposals for the property tax, the opportunity cost of the Croke Park agreement – there can be no more sacred cows in this debate. Choices being faced by Ministers should be considered, as well as possible alternatives that are seen to be ‘no-go’ areas.

Ministers Noonan and Howlin will make their decisions, but the Dail and the people should be allowed to see what the alternatives are. This should help the Government in its work, particularly when people see the stark choices facing us. Already this year the State has spent €11.3 billion more than it has earned and at the moment the proposed correction for next year is €3.5 billion. This is not going to be easy, but we can help guide everyone through the process.

The budget for 2013 and the measures to be contained therein will be too serious to simply announce on the day, as has happened before. No TD, on the Government benches or otherwise, can be expected to vote on budgetary measures that they have only seen that morning for the first time, or in the immediate run-up to the budget.

Given that the Dáil is currently in recess, the website will be updated less frequently in the coming weeks.

If you have any local information or events that you would like to have posted online, please get in touch as we would be happy to help promote them.

The office in Leinster House is still open during regular office hours and you can email my office at eoghan.murphy@oir.ie or ring on 01-6183324 if you have an issue that you wish to raise.

On Monday, 6th August, over 40 people gathered in Dublin’s Merrion Square, to mark the 67th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. Approximately 80,000 people were killed directly by the bomb blast, with the death toll rising to 140,000 within a year.

The commemoration was addressed by the Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Clare Byrne, Patrick Comerford, President of the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and Mr Kojiro Uchiyama, Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission of the Japanese Embassy in Ireland.

Opening the commemoration, Cllr Byrne reaffirmed the commitment of the city of Dublin to Mayors for Peace, the organisation founded by the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons, with the aim of ensuring that no other city should ever suffer the horrors experienced by their citizens. Dublin was the first Irish city to join Mayors for Peace, in 1994.

Patrick Comerford welcomed the recent reiteration by Minister for Foreign Affairs, Eamonn Gilmore, of Ireland’s strong commitment to nuclear disarmament, and repeated Irish CND’s call for legislation to ban Irish state investments in companies involved in the nuclear weapons industry.

“While Irish foreign policy has always strongly endorsed nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, these commitments are not matched by Irish financial policies, he said. “The National Pension Reserve Fund, according to its 2011 report, has investments of at least €23 million in international arms companies that produce single-use components for the nuclear weapons industry. AIB, which is in majority state ownership, lent $28 million to a US company involved in the nuclear weapons industry in 2010. People are being refused mortgages; small businesses are being bled to death because their overdraft facilities are being called in. But Irish money is available to make nuclear weapons. This is outrageous.

“Other countries that play a leading role in support of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament – such as Norway and New Zealand – prohibit the investment of state funds in companies involved in the nuclear weapons industry, he continued. “There is a similar ban in Ireland on investments in companies engaged in the landmine and cluster munitions industries. Why is the government not ensuring a similar ban when it comes to the nuclear weapons industry?”

The Japanese Counsellor, Mr Uchiyama, spoke of the responsibility felt by Japan, as the only country to have experienced the devastation of an attack using nuclear weapons, to work for total nuclear disarmament, and stressed the importance of working with like-minded members of the international community, including Ireland, to achieve this goal.
Japanese harpist Junchi Morikami performed several pieces of traditional music at the ceremony, and poet Hugh McFadden read his poem, ‘Empire of Shadows’, the title work of his forthcoming anthology. After the laying of a wreath at the memorial cherry tree planted by Irish CND in 1980, a minute’s silence was observed by those present.

Read Patrick Comerford’s speech in full here.

This article appeared in thejournal.ie on Friday, (15.6.12)

When Ireland eventually signed off on the Lisbon treaty, the general conclusion at the time was that there would be little new on the horizon by way of further attempts to amend the functioning of the European Union. The internal navel-gazing was done for now and the immediate future would be spent examining the EU’s role in external affairs.

I guess the pundits were wrong.

It is a fact of our relationship with Europe now that we proceed by referendum. That on the main issues of the day we consult the people before we can continue.

We will be consulting them again in the near future, for it is certain that there is more to come in our quest to save the euro. But we don’t need to march blindly on, wondering what changes may come and then discussing them only at the last minute in the pressure of a referendum campaign, where other interests and other political motives come in to play.

A massive shift in the functioning of the EU is under way through current efforts to make the currency union a viable one. It’s time we started talking about the end game – what we believe it should be, and what we are willing to do to get there.

Without a vision, and without definite positions on key issues, we risk becoming a passenger on the eurozone express, rather than someone laying the tracks. The eventual risk is that we find ourselves being asked to go to a place that we’re not too happy about, only by then it’s a single track and there’s no way back.

Because of the referendum situation, the big questions must be answered by all of us. Now is the time to begin the discussion. We have room now, with the Stability Treaty passed and access to funding guaranteed post 2013.

We have our fiscal stability plan. But currency unions require more than that. Pooling our debt, possible direct interventions in banking systems, banking unions, all require more than that. They require more than just coherence in planning. They require coherence in fiscal instruments at the very least, if not some form of central control of the fiscal levers of the State, with fiscal transfers to boot.

So it’s time to figure out where we stand on some of our key taxation issues, if we’re to understand and help chart the right direction for the future of the eurozone. Because if we want to stay in it, we need to make sure that it’s going to work for us. When you look at the recent situation in Spain and their banking problem, this is exactly what they are doing: making it work for them. Germany has been doing it since day one.

(And yes they’re bigger powers than us. But the whole point of the European Union – it’s raison det’re – was to negate such conventional power imbalances and establish us as equals in a common purpose. How quickly that is becoming undone).

For example, we need to really figure out where we stand on a Financial Transaction Tax. We say we will only move on this with the UK, because we don’t want to put our own financial services sector (30,000+ jobs) at a competitive disadvantage. But the UK are not inside the euro, so they’re not going to be asked the same questions as us. What if Germany and France decided to go a different way to the UK? Which way would we go?

Another example is our corporation tax. We say we will not budge on it as it is central to our economic planning, now and in the future. But can you have separate and distinct sovereign tax havens inside a single fiscal system? Isn’t that a contradiction?

Here’s another way of looking at it: would we give control of our corporate tax rate up (even if only to suffer a 0.5 per cent increase) if it meant a write-off of the legacy banking debt, some 68 billion? What if they threw in our public service pension liability too?

There are implications for the future of the euro in how we answer these questions, in the direction that current and new policies can take as our leaders attempt to maintain and strengthen the eurozone, and with us in it.

Better to prepare for them now, to prepare for ours and Europe’s future. Because a bigger referendum is surely to come. We need the euro to survive. But at what cost? It is time to start asking ourselves some honest questions about what we are willing to do to make sure that it does, and us with it. The end game is what’s important now.

A message to supporters in Dublin South East:

Tomorrow we will be asked to vote on the Stability Treaty.

It’s called the ‘Stability Treaty’ because that is exactly what it is. That may sound boring, but stability is what we need right now while we move to correct our fiscal position and get the various parts of the economy moving and growing again.

This isn’t an easy task, but thankfully it’s not one we are facing alone. And while the Stability Treaty is not the answer in itself, I do believe it is part of a greater solution to our problems.

The Stability Treaty is actually very basic when you break it down. It requires us to bring in responsible national budgeting. In return, we gain access to European lending at cost price.

I see this as a win-win for Ireland because we need both of these things. This is why voting Yes will keep us on a stable path while we address the bigger issues that still challenge our economy.

The Treaty has nothing to do with bank debt, membership of the Euro or household charges. Every week the state borrows more than €300 million just to fund the running of the country day to day. The Stability Treaty will help us manage this temporary position and ensure that we never find ourselves with such a difficult burden again.

We do not know what will happen if we vote No. But I think it’s logical to assume that a rejection of responsible budgeting and cheaper loans will certainly not put us in a better position than we are in now. Whereas voting Yes keeps us on a stable track while dealing with our outstanding problems in a fair way.

The referendum is happening on Thursday 31^st May. We have a decision to make and now is the time to make it. I am voting ‘Yes’ to the Stability Treaty.

It’s made a big difference having the weather. On the positive side, it’s been more enjoyable being outside and we’re able to canvass later in the evening. On the negative, not as many people have been home. But we’re getting around and making good progress. There are undecided voters out there and now is the best time to meet them as you have a real opportunity in bringing them over to the Yes side.

Last week was an important one insofar as the big picture is concerned. We had to keep the momentum up as there was a risk that if we didn’t the polls could move against us. But there’s been no seismic shift and indications are positive. Turnout will play a key factor ultimately.

On Thursday we were at the Lansdowne Road stadium launching the Sportstars for Yes campaign organised by Senator Coghlan. It was a lot of fun and great to be down on the hallowed turf, and in such great weather. The Taoiseach was on form and the whole thing went very well. It’s an important aspect of the campaign as these guys aren’t political yet they still clearly see the importance of the Treaty.

Friday morning had me out of the constituency and canvassing commuters getting on the LUAS at Dundrum. Good fun, always enjoyable when out with the YFG crew. Saturday was more out and about with a team. A few of us scored some conversions, which makes a difference for the morale. Sunday we had our last big rally ahead of voting, in the Mansion House. Another sitting on a platform role for me (but I really think I sat well). Everyone spoke excellently so no complaints. Then out to scout out a location for the Taoiseach for today (missing the match – the sacrifices we make!). A big event, for all involved, and hoping it will go well.

It’s been a good week so far. We’ve had great numbers out canvassing and a good bit of fun. There are people out there voting no but in the main people are positive and supportive. Some still have to make their mind up but all are engaged with the issues. So we’ll keep on knocking on doors until we’ve gotten to everyone.

Wednesday was a pretty big day. The Taoiseach came to speak to a group of start-up tech companies who were pitching to potential investors from Ireland and abroad. Some very impressive talent and the T took time with each of them. He also met with Silicon Valley Bank and some other key investors. Some were more than happy to speak to camera and state their support for the Referendum. This kind of event is exactly why the Treaty is so important.

I’ve had a couple of radio outings this week to debate Greece, the euro and the Treaty. The Last Word with Matt Cooper on Wednesday over the phone and the Late Debate with Fergal Keane last night in studio. It’s better when debating to be in the studio I think, you get a better interaction with the other panelists. The situation in Greece is really critical and I think it does underline the importance of our own progress and continuing on a stable path.

Speaking in Trinity this evening which should be fun (!). Then it’s out and about on the campaign trail in Ranelagh village tomorrow morning. Just under two weeks to go.