1) BN 15:44 *IRELAND'S FINANCE MINISTER LENIHAN DETAILS SAVINGS IN SPEECH
2) BN 15:43 *IRELAND'S GOVERNMENT SAYS NO PAY INCREASES FOR MINISTERS
3) BN 15:43 *IRELAND'S LENIHAN SAYS GOVT DEPTS MUST REDUCE PAYROLL BILL 3%
4) BN 15:43 *IRELAND'S COWEN SPOKE AT PRESS CONFERENCE IN DUBLIN
6) BN 15:42 *IRELAND'S GOVERNMENT SAYS DECENTRALIZATION TO BE REVIEWED
7) BN 15:42 *IRELAND'S GOVERNMENT WANTS TO REDUCE HEALTH JOBS
8) BN 15:41 *IRELAND'S GOVERNMENT SAYS CAPITAL PROJECTS WILL BE EXAMINED
9) BN 15:41 *IRELAND'S COWEN SAYS ECONOMY FACES `DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES'
10) BN 15:41 *IRELAND'S GOVERNMENT SEEKS 50% CUT IN CONSULTANCY CONTRACTS
11) BN 15:40 *IRELAND'S GOVERNMENT SEEKS EU1 BLN IN SAVINGS IN 2009
12) BN 15:40 *IRELAND'S GOVERNMENT SEEKS EU440 MLN IN SAVINGS IN 08
13) BN 15:39 *IRELAND'S GOVERNMENT WANT 3% PAY CUT ACROSS ALL STATE AGENCIES
A 3% pay CUT with 5% inflation and rising interest rates?
That’ll be popular 
Except for the ministers. They get away with a pay freeze!
Is that 3% knocked off the price of houses straight away ?
Better keep an even closer eye on bank shares 
He is making the right noises thankfully.
I hope he takes a hard line with the public sector in pay talks.
Lots of “reviewing” and “examining” going on.
Consultants who provide “reviewing” and “examining” services are in for a windfall.
-Rd
No. All departments except health and education have to cut their payroll bill by 3%, that’ll be done by a hiring freeze and natural wastage. And the pay rises given to High Court Judges and Senior Civil Servants are to be cancelled. (Just heard it on Newstalk 106)
Looks like that 3% is the target to reduce their departmental payroll bill by.
This will probably be achieved through staff attrition and not pay cuts, although staff attrition is probably quite low in the civil service. Cutting an employees pay would be a monumental step for the civil service.
Yep another recruitment embargo is on the cards, unfortunately, embargo is a pretty blunt instrument, usually ends up with certain areas overmanned while others have to cut services due to shortages in personel.
We should immediately stop spending money training people who stand no chance of being hired in Ireland.
As a simple example, what is the point of training phisiotherapists that have to go abroad for work when they graduate?
Is this what the ESRI had in mind when they claimed exports would increase?
-Rd
No sign of a reaction from the stockmarket and in fact has weakened in the last twenty minutes after recovering slightly around mid-day.
Market conclusion ? Master plan a non event.
Government pres conference a non event 
Go figure 
If we need to increase exports, I vote we export Liz O’Kane, Tom Parlon, Austin Hughes and Dan McLaughlin immediately. Oh, and the Sindo.
Think of the carbon offsets from the reduction in harmful emissions 
Nobody gives a damn about any government plan.
Nobody believes they’ll implement whatever they come up with.
Nobody believes it would make a difference in any case.
It’s a non story.
The plan may mean you have to wait longer on a hospital trolly, but it won’t generate a single penny of extra profits for irish companies.
The media will talk it up like it’s the center of the universe, but it’s nothing, it’s trivia.
-Rd
Couldn’t possibly do that to another country. We’d have to send them to the planet on the Hitchhiker’s guide where they sent the telephone sanitisers to.
Sadly this country out of all the countries in the world is currently least at risk from their crap, barring the people running around shouting “It’s still good”.
you need to think laterally xman
give Bertie the keys to the NTMA vault, let him pick a few winners and we’ll be in clover!
Priceless, 
Lenihan: “Our careful stewardship of the economy over the last eleven years has positioned us well to weather the economic storms ahead”
I bet the shorts will be stampeding to cover after that one. 
If they had wanted to avoid playing politics they’d have left the tribunals alone - until they came up with a cheaper equivalent. It’s more of the same, put their own skins before the country.
One word - contractors. If I were contracting in the civil service I’d be getting very, very nervous. I already know of two long term (+3 years and +5 years respectively) contractors who have been culled in the last few weeks.