Brian Lenihan - What would your advice be on cost savings

[jayblue]

As we are going through an economic adjustment, what would your advice be to Brian on how he should save money and limit the deficit.
So to start the ball rolling.

Cut all elected politicans and the ministerial advisors salaries by 10%. I would scrap this extra payment of €1,100 pa for children up to the age of 6. Bring back third level fees for those who can afford them.

[The Earl of Desmond]

Every single department - including health and education and social welfare - should have to produce savings/cutbacks/efficiencies or whatever you want to call them of 10% acorss every single department and the savings should be broken down to the penny. Then we'd see who has the guts to tackle the real areas of waste and who takes the spinelss option of cutting back on welfare or healthcare costs or social welfare payments.

As a gesture of goodwill the ministers payrises should be cancelled and they should have 30% paycuts made permanent and the pensions of all politicans put on a defined contribution basis effectively immediately and then for all serving or previous TDs they should get a set % per year of service.

I mean it's not like they are going to go on strike if they don't like it.

Easy peasy to save billions - having the guts to do the right thing though is another matter.

[Centurian]

Absolutely no dole or any other social security payments for non Irish citizens.

These Economic Migrants didn't come to Ireland for any altruistic reasons. If they now find themselves unemployed we the Irish taxpayers owe them NOTHING.

If they're destitute I don't object to the government giving them a free one way Ryanair ticket back to where they came from. They should be entitled to absolutely nothing more than that.

[crocked]

As we are going through an economic adjustment, what would your advice be to Brian on how he should save money and limit the deficit.
So to start the ball rolling.

Cut all elected politicans and the ministerial advisors salaries by 10%. I would scrap this extra payment of €1,100 pa for children up to the age of 6. Bring back third level fees for those who can afford them.

he could dissolve the government and let the civil servents run the country for a few years... that would save some money :mrgreen:

[adrem]

Every single department - including health and education and social welfare - should have to produce savings/cutbacks/efficiencies or whatever you want to call them of 10% acorss every single department and the savings should be broken down to the penny. Then we'd see who has the guts to tackle the real areas of waste and who takes the spinelss option of cutting back on welfare or healthcare costs or social welfare payments.

As a gesture of goodwill the ministers payrises should be cancelled and they should have 30% paycuts made permanent and the pensions of all politicans put on a defined contribution basis effectively immediately and then for all serving or previous TDs they should get a set % per year of service.

I mean it's not like they are going to go on strike if they don't like it.

Easy peasy to save billions - having the guts to do the right thing though is another matter.

Surely this would only make sense (and have a real impact) if it was applied to every public sector employee??

[The Earl of Desmond]

Every single department - including health and education and social welfare - should have to produce savings/cutbacks/efficiencies or whatever you want to call them of 10% acorss every single department and the savings should be broken down to the penny. Then we'd see who has the guts to tackle the real areas of waste and who takes the spinelss option of cutting back on welfare or healthcare costs or social welfare payments.

As a gesture of goodwill the ministers payrises should be cancelled and they should have 30% paycuts made permanent and the pensions of all politicans put on a defined contribution basis effectively immediately and then for all serving or previous TDs they should get a set % per year of service.

I mean it's not like they are going to go on strike if they don't like it.

Easy peasy to save billions - having the guts to do the right thing though is another matter.

Surely this would only make sense (and have a real impact) if it was applied to every public sector employee??

No - most public services earn normal modest salaries and do a good job be they a nurse, teacher or admin in a dept - its the ones on massive pay who no one knows what it is they do thats the problem - its better to get rid of one big fat cat then 20 admin staff. How many 'managers' are there in gov dept - how much do they eanr and for what? They are the people who need to be targeted and got rid of and the TD pension thing is morally disgusting.

The amount of money might not be huge but the signal it would send would be massive.

[Halibut]

Absolutely no dole or any other social security payments for non Irish citizens.
These Economic Migrants didn't come to Ireland for any altruistic reasons. If they
now find themselves unemployed we the Irish taxpayers owe them NOTHING...

Let me see if I've got this right; no dole for those who came here to work and pay taxes, but
plenty for those who wouldn't get out of their chairs if their arse was on fire?

[Macy]

Save a billion - scrap decentralisation.

[soubresauts]

First, target the quangos. There's incredible waste there. Fine Gael made a start with their critique a few months ago. I made more specific proposals here.

Second (staying in the health/illness area), do away with state support for vaccination. There should be no funding, subsidy or promotion for any vaccination. Let people sort it out with their doctors: doctors can tell them the pros and cons; adults can make decisions on behalf of their children and themselves. It's a myth that we need vaccination.

In those areas alone, there are huge savings to be made.

[Centurian]

Let me see if I've got this right; no dole for those who came here to work and pay taxes

If they came here to work and they now don't have work, they can feck off back where they came from - We owe them NOTHING.