Just what we need: 270 more uses for red tape
Even the Government itself doesn’t really believe in the Action Plan for Jobs, writes James Fitzsimons
THE world of high finance is rebuilding itself while our own inept Government has stuck its head in the sand. It does not have the expertise or financial acumen to lead us out of the crisis. Mario Monti, Italy’s new Prime Minister, made the cover of Time magazine with the caption ‘Can This Man Save Europe?’ There is no sign that the efforts of our own leaders will win any accolades. They stir the pot and we are left to stew. Their sole aim is to keep public servants happy. Meanwhile, the private sector is drowning. Public sector quangos are like parasites siphoning off funds that should go directly to private enterprise. Bureaucracy is holding us back.
The European banking crisis has slowed down global recovery because the EU refuses to let its bad banks go. Last year, 10 per cent of the European banks failed to meet their stress-testing targets. Another 20 per cent barely passed. If the weakest 10 per cent were allowed to fail, the rest could be strengthened by what the others left behind. The EU clings on to a failed banking model that is dragging the rest down. Had we fooled global money markets, on which we depend for funds, we might have saved our credibility. We fooled nobody and countries such as Ireland are paying the price so that Germany and France can stay in control.
We are not part of the solution. We have been labelled unfit for purpose. That description aptly fits our Government and public sector. It might seem harsh to indiscriminately label so many for the mistakes of a few. Like it or not, the burden created by an oversized public sector is destroying the productive part of the economy. The private sector has been fed on a diet of pie-in-the-sky, while the Government dines a la carte and sips espressos. The time has come to burst their bubble and bring them down to earth.
They are plundering private pension funds for half a billion a year to bankroll an illfated jobs initiative. The latest one (Action Plan for Jobs 2012), like the Bord Snip report, is another excuse to avoid making strategic decisions. It contains over 270 initiatives to be implemented in 2012 by 15 Government departments and 36 quangos. It claims it will provide loans for businesses. But we listened to this for three years and nothing has changed. It promises to cut red tape, but that will never happen when the very existence of the public sector here and in the EU is sustained by red tape. It claims that 100,000 jobs will be created in four years. At best, this is aspirational. Someone might create jobs, but it won’t be the Government.
If the Government had any confidence in this initiative, it could be reduced to a fivepoint plan. But then that would leave it exposed and they would have no excuses to hide behind. With 270 initiatives, something will pay off and that will justify their existence for another term. There is nothing in the action plan that won’t help the economy given the right conditions, but there is nothing of merit to suggest that it was worth the effort or the expense.
The one thing that the action plan will achieve is job security for public servants who were redundant since our productive capacity was wiped out. When our need is to cut down on red tape and quangos, the action plan creates even more. It doles out work to keep the Government and the quangos busy, while the productive part of the economy treads water.
But it is not just public sector pay and pensions that have caused the problem. The backoffice waste and inefficiency that nobody is held accountable for is at the core of our woes. What the Government couldn’t extort out of vulnerable taxpayers it borrowed from the EU to perpetuate the myth that we were alright now.
The Department of Finance reminds us every month that the average pay for public servants is 50 per cent higher than in the private sector. In reality, the vast number of highly paid workers in healthcare and education distorts the figures. But even the lower paid fare better than their private sector counterparts. When pension benefits are taken into account, the gap widens.
Waste, inefficiency and layers of staff make our public sector a financial burden that must be trimmed down to a manageable size. Those in charge failed to control it — and with no one to stop them, they created vast empires that even the taxpayer could not afford to sustain. Action Plan 2012 might create work for underutilised public servants, but it won’t save the economy or create the jobs we need.
A 20 per cent cut in public sector pay and pensions may be needed, at least until such time that the private sector can justify this cost. Public servants need the private sector and we need less bureaucracy, even if the EU doesn’t agree. The cuts should start at the top and that must include an immediate cap on pensions over €60,000. They spent it while the money was there but we cannot afford the outrageous pensions, let alone the waste. Brendan Howlin
‘It doles out work to keep the quangos busy, while the productive part of the economy treads water’
admitted this last year but failed to deal with the problem. Now it’s Richard Bruton’s turn to create a smokescreen with the next jobs plan. The self-employed who created the wealth lost everything when the economy collapsed. Why should it be any different for public servants and the Government? In the boom years, Fas wasted billions of euro of taxpayers’ money on the pretence that it was creating jobs. It was the biggest quango we ever had. Those who steered this ship of state onto the rocks were paid off with outrageous pensions. Nothing has changed, but now we must borrow the money to pay for the waste. Action Plan 2012 will create another Fas if we let it, and we will be impoverished if we put all our hopes on this white elephant.
The 15 Government departments and 36 quangos won’t save the private sector. It didn’t work before and it won’t work now.
We are educating and training our people to find work abroad. Those who are left will foot the bill. If that is all we can look forward to, we should leave now. The only ones left will be the Government and public servants. Who will pay them then?
While the rest of the world is fighting for its survival, we are scurrying around and living on crumbs that fall from their tables. We cannot blame civil servants for the financial crisis, and they cannot blame the private sector for knocking down their ivory towers. If the Government cannot come up with viable solutions, it should at least recognise the problems and accept more radical cuts. Aimlessly throwing borrowed money at the problem is no solution.
Cut unnecessary red tape and business will find the right solutions. Sweetheart deals for public servants and quangos are the most ineffective use of resources.
Drop 90 per cent of the initiatives from the so-called action plan and cut 20 per cent from wasteful public spending. We will find tangible, viable alternatives with or without Government intervention. We were brought to where we are by the biggest fools in Europe, and we are bigger fools if we allow it to continue.