1 in 3 civil service jobs to go with Fine Gael

Date: 17/02/2011
Posted by: Darragh

In its manifesto, Fine Gael pledges a one third reduction in civil servants in central government departments.

So civil servants in their offices today can look around and think that every third one of them is not wanted by Fine Gael. And which one of them will it be?

This is a key part of its savings plan and Fine Gael says that the job losses will be voluntary.

How can Fine Gael be sure? What if 1 in 3 civil servants won’t volunteer for the chop? What will Fine Gael do then? Will Fine Gael then make compulsory redundancies?

If not, what will they cut instead? Will there be bigger reductions in child benefit than the €14 per month already planned? Or will they give up their pretence on taxes?