Originally Posted by adamirer

Well said. Don't get ahead of yourselves thinking the private sector is so wonderful and public sector contributes nothing. Remember the private sector includes cleaners, people working in hmv, cothes shops, dunnes etc, so its not by any means all high end skills and mentally stimulating work. Forgive the classist nature of that comment, but the fact is it is not exactly high value adding. Any junior cert students, as one poster put it, could do a HELL of a lot of private sector job. and hey, in fact are!!!!

If the public service is so well paid compared to the private sector then quit and join the public service...

Garda & Prison staff get so well paid due to overtime and the fact that they are basically understaffed for the amount of time work that is required. If there were 4,000 more garda etc you'd find the overtime bill come down a lot.

Civil servants, teachers etc, don't really get paid overtime. I've got it for one day in 5 years. Similarly as an EO I was responsible for a €10m cross border infrastructure plan, a media campaign, construction projects, amongst others. How many people in the private sector do that level of work. or that responsibility for under €35k a year... exactly. It took me 4 years in the civil service to earn the same as my last private sector job (in IT), and I guarantee you i wouldn't have left that job if i had known decentralisation was going to happen.

Public service is too broad to be so handily labelled. Exactly what professions should be paid less? The doctors? nurses? teachers? garda?

Remember, virtually all teachers had a 3rd level degree, and most post primary have a hdip in Ed, the entry level for EO, AO and higher in the civil service is a primary degree and the average graduate salary is around 28-32k.

While there are many benefits, and thats not disputed, there are also many difficulties that are rarely mentioned. The entire civil service promotional system has been almost frozen since Dec 2003, there's bee a huge brain drain from key areas to facilitate decentralisation, our jobs are used as political footballs (bye bye Parlon if there is any justice).

Promotions are ridgid and we are not assigned to where we are interested. Wages are set, regardless of ability. You can't leave and come back or else you have to start again - hence we stay even when miserable.

Finally, consultants are hired because Ministers like them, its seen as 'independent' and because they have the time (and often experience) to do work that stretched civil servants don't - especially when you're moved to a new section every 3 years.