Tags: career breaks, civil servants, Cork, Ireland, politics, Simon Coveney, Special Incentive Career Break Scheme

Simon Coveney

NEW information has confirmed that the career break scheme for civil servants has not been successful with only 300 civil servants applying for it according to Fine Gael TD, Simon Coveney.

The information was released to Deputy Coveney in a Parliamentary Question.

“It is clear that one of the cornerstones of the Government’s plan to cut the public sector bill has failed,” he said.

“Fianna Fáil and the Greens were relying on the ‘Special Incentive Career Break Scheme’ to cut the civil service pay bill significantly.

“To start off, the 111,000 workers in the HSE cannot avail of the Scheme as the HSE has suspended the scheme because of a disagreement with trade unions. This leaves the 35,000 civil servants employed in the country. However, only 300 of these have applied for the career break scheme, a paltry 0.86 per cent.

“It was ridiculous for the Government to assume that there would be any significant interest in the Scheme. There are 413,000 people unemployed in the country and by December, that number will most likely exceed half a million. Who in their right mind would choose to leave their job in an economic climate like that?

“The Government’s reliance on a Scheme like this was folly at best. It highlights the complete absence of a coherent plan coming from Fianna Fáil and the Greens where un-costed, ill-thought out plans, such as this one are advanced to fill the hole in Exchequer finances.

“Fine Gael would rather see a firm plan with key milestones and timelines for tackling our lost competitiveness.”