IPPN

Published: 03 November 2008

Source : Irish Independent

By Stephen O'Farrell

Monday November 03 2008

THE Government is under fire after revelations that every staff member in the public service got performance-related payments of up to €6,000 because fellow civil servants ignored guidelines.

Consultants had designed the Performance Management and Development System (PMDS) in 2004 with a five-point scale to rate staff, with 'one' being the worst and 'five' the best.

The designers, Mercer Consultants, had estimated that 20pc of staff should fall into the 'one' and 'two' categories, but it is now claimed that just 1.6pc of staff, or 300 individuals, received the lower grades in 2007.

The Government would only say last night that "extensive training" was provided to civil servants and that they all understood how the controversial performance-related payment system was meant to operate.

But Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar said: "There's something wrong with an organisation if it shows that everyone is always doing a good job."

The Department of Finance was remaining tightlipped on the matter last night and could not confirm whether a review of the system would be taking place.

But a spokesman insisted: "When the Performance Management and Development system was introduced, both staff and management were given extensive training on how it would operate."

Guidelines say that the ratings specified by Mercer are "not binding", but "illustrate a broad pattern that could be expected at organisational level".

The 18 employees who received the 'one' grade got no pay rise, while the 285 who earned a 'two' rank received an increase but were denied a promotion, according to the figures.

Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that public sector increases that Taoiseach Brian Cowen negotiated under the social partnership deal will cost the taxpayer over €1bn.

Information secured by Mr Varadkar shows that a combination of the increments, a 2.5pc increase this year and a 3.5pc rise in 2009, will cost at least €1bn -- despite an 11-month pay freeze.

Mr Varadkar told the Irish Independent yesterday that his party was currently looking at alternatives to PMDS. He revealed that the broad principle of their proposed system would involve "local managers having more autonomy" than under the current scheme.

Meanwhile, the exchequer is also losing hundreds of millions of euro due to absenteeism in the public sector.

Health Service Executive staff are taking almost twice as many sick days as the national average, while primary and secondary school teachers take almost 240,000 sick days a year.

Absenteeism

The latest audit in the HSE shows that absenteeism is at 6.2pc, costing the executive around €150m a year.

Porters, caterers, carpenters, care assistants and other support staff were the biggest culprits, with 8pc of their working hours lost to sick leave.

Drivers, nurses aids, health promotion officers and community welfare officers were out of work for 7pc of the working year.

In education, an average €60m a year is being spent on substitute teachers due to absenteeism among permanent staff.

- Stephen O'Farrell

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Published: 02 November 2008

Source : Sunday Tribune

Sick teachers cost state €60m a year in cover
Martin Frawley

Primary and secondary school teachers take almost 240,000 sick days a year with €60m being spent on substitute cover.

Education minister Batt O'Keeffe has declared that he will cut back on the use of substitute teachers from next January and told the Dáil last week that one third of the total €151m cost of substitute teachers in primary and secondary schools to cover over 600,000 days, was due to teachers being out on certified and uncertified sick leave.

Under Minister O'Keeffe's cutbacks, substitute cover would no longer be provided for teachers on uncertified sick leave in all schools or to cover for secondary teachers away on school business such as sports events, seminars or arts events.

Of the €60m to cover sick leave, over €16m is for uncertified sick leave ; the main area O'Keefe has targeted for cutbacks.

At primary level, where almost 30,000 teachers are employed, the overall cost of substitute cover has mushroomed from €26m in 2002 to a projected €84m this year.

In the 2007/2008 school year at primary level, substitute teachers were used to cover for 362,923 teaching days of which 30% or 109,000 were to cover certified sick leave and 11% or 40,000 days to cover for uncertified sick leave.

At secondary level where 17,700 teachers are employed, substitute teachers were used to cover for 245,399 days of which 25% or 61,350 were for certified sick leave and over 11% or 27,700 for uncertified sick leave.

This leaves an overall absenteeism rate among teachers of over 7% of which sickness accounts for 3%.

Though this is not high by private sector standards, the problem for Minister O'Keeffe is that unlike most jobs, immediate cover has to be provided for an absent teacher and this has cost progressively more over the past few years.

The other 370,000 teaching days in which substitute teachers had to be used included teachers away at events relating to their jobs.

In a further blow to teachers, Minister O'Keeffe also announced that the special early retirement scheme for teachers is being suspended due to the "challenging economic climate".

This early retirement scheme for teachers gave teachers added years service for pension purpose if they volunteered to go early because (a) they were experiencing professional difficulties, (b) their departure would allow the school to expand their education service and (c) they were surplus to requirements.

Almost 1,400 teachers have availed of the scheme since 2002 and 191 are expected to depart this year before the scheme finishes.

claire byrne, page 11

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Published: 02 November 2008

Source : Sunday Tribune

Recession plan to hire computers for schools
Conor McMorrow

THE Department of Education may start to lease computers from IT companies for use in schools if they cannot afford to buy them during the recession.

The Sunday Tribune can reveal that education minister Batt O'Keefe met a number of leading IT firms last week to negotiate a 'computers for schools' deal as the downturn takes hold.

The government's pledge to invest €252m in information technology for schools in the National Development Plan 2007-2013 is under threat and the minister is understood to be exploring alternative ways of providing computers for primary and secondary schools.

O'Keefe met with representatives from Apple, Hewlett Packard and Microsoft last week, in the midst of the controversy over education cuts contained in the budget, in a bid to find "innovative" ways of providing computer hardware for schools.

The education minister will meet with representatives from Dell, Intel and Lenovo (formerly IBM) in the coming days as he attempts to hammer out a deal with the IT industry.

Speaking to the Sunday Tribune, O'Keefe said: "I recognise the integral importance of information technology in the learning process in primary and second level. The straitened economic times in which we live will demand affordable and innovative solutions to enhance our IT capacity in schools around the country.

"I have started a process in which I have asked the industry for their input and expertise and they have responded very positively. The industry is now looking at a number of options and will come back to me in the very near future with ways that show how we can work together in the interests of the children in our schools."

The government invests millions of euro each year in teacher-training programmes in IT and claims that more than 90% of all schools have access to broadband. But unless O'Keefe can negotiate a deal with companies to provide computers for schools, that broadband provision will be rendered useless.

November 2, 2008

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Published: 02 November 2008

Source : Sunday Tribune

Picture the scene. A middle-aged man is sitting in a psychiatrist's room, emptying out all his bad stuff to the shrink. The year is 2048. The man is stuck in a moment, unable to move on with his life because of a horrendous experience visited on him in childhood.

Suddenly, he breaks down as he finally hits on the root of all his problems.

"There were 28 of us," he cries. "In my junior infants' class, there were 28 of us when there was supposed to be only be 27."

So it goes in the world of hyperbole. Last Wednesday on Morning Ireland, Labour's Ruairí Quinn had this to say about how the proposed increase in class sizes will affect four-year-olds: "This is going to be a wound they carry for the rest of their lives."

As the nation comes to grips with a new, dark reality, demented rhetoric is the order of the day, particularly wherever "the vulnerable" are discussed.

"We are determined to protect the most vulnerable in our society and we will redirect resources to that end," Brian Lenihan announced in his budget speech. Cue the migration of huge tracts of the populace to the land of the vulnerable.

Everybody is vulnerable, including every single elderly person and every child. The 70-year-old millionaire in rude health is as vulnerable as the 80-year-old on a non-contributory pension, suffering from chronic emphysema. The boy attending a top fee-paying school is as vulnerable as the Traveller girl who accesses running water only when attending school.

Farmers have never been as vulnerable as they are now, particularly the bigger ones who hoovered up the lion's share in EU grants. Bankers are vulnerable, in danger of choking on their own greed. Developers, well, with another one biting the dust each week, who could be more vulnerable? Their representative, Tommy Parlon, was so good at articulating their vulnerability that Lenihan sorted them out in the budget with a scheme for first-time buyers which was really designed to prop up developers.

Vulnerability is all the rage ; and why wouldn't it be when the only alternative is to endure pain. The result of all this cant is that the status of the really vulnerable is being devalued. How can the plight of the poor, the sick, those with special needs be properly heard above the din? And what about the new really vulnerable, people who are losing their jobs each day, and the families they support?

The scramble to be vulnerable comes after a decade in which the government set a tone reassuring everybody who mattered that they would be taken care of, that it was their right to get everything they wanted. The manner of governing under Bertie Ahern was to keep all interest groups happy, often at the cost of tackling the real problems in society.

Developers got tax breaks that were not justified. Banks were permitted to loan and profit under poor regulation, permitting them to pump smoke onto the mirrors of debt. Powerful lobby groups, like public sector unions and business interests, got what they wanted to keep the show on the road. Everybody who mattered was kept happy, and if any money was left over, it was fired in an unstructured way at the real problems.

The furore over education cuts ; some but not all of which are genuinely
shocking ; is a case in point. For the last week, teachers have been referring exclusively to the impact on children, all of whom are apparently vulnerable. Teachers themselves are far from vulnerable in the current climate.

During the boom years, teachers were well taken care of. Benchmarking, the "ATM machine" as described by Joe O'Toole, lifted their earnings, allegedly to bring them into line with the private sector. Fair enough, teaching is an important business that should be designed to attract bright recruits. Now, however, private sector jobs are being tossed on the waves of the economy and teachers shelter in a protected harbour.

While they did just fine in the boom, education didn't prosper. Class sizes remained high. A proper school-building programme was long-fingered. Disadvantage and special needs were tackled in a haphazard manner.

Couldn't teachers now share the pain in order to protect the vulnerable? How about advocating a pay freeze for middle-income earners in the public sector, which might free up money to reduce class sizes, or pay for much needed books?

Would it be too much to ask teachers in secondary schools to supervise a class whose teacher is away on school business? There is plenty of pain to go around.

Ultimately, teachers are no different to any other interest group with muscle. After a decade in which they were schooled to demand and expect, they are not now willing to take any pain.

Could you really blame them? Through the years of misrule, a tone of self-interest was fostered by the very government which is now beseeching us to locate a chord of inner patriotism. It's no wonder that everybody is feeling vulnerable.

November 2, 2008

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