IMPACT Launches national part of campaign to defend public services
28 March, 2007
EPSU Ireland affiliate, IMPACT, have launched a comprehensive campaign to defend Ireland’s public servants. The campaign can be accessed here: www.qualitypublicservices.ie. The action by IMPACT swiftly follows on from the joint EPSU/IMPACT press conference to push for an EU framework law on public services. This event, which took place 15 March, saw EPSU General Secretary Carola Fischbach-Pyttel and Irish Congress of Trade Union (ICTU) General Secretary, Dave Begg (pictured), jointly call for signatories for www.petitionpublicservice.eu. Ms. Fischbach-Pyttel emphasised the strength of the IMPACT campaign, stating that; "the more we link the EU dimension to national actions, as IMPACT have done, the more pressure we apply for a strong EU framework law to promote public services".
The IMPACT campaign put the focus on the positive role public service staff play in society. It states that the staff are often unfairly criticised in an imbalanced debate about service quality and staff performance. The union has produced material to help its members, often dismissed as “bureaucrats, pen-pushers, bean counters and file-pullers,” to put their case to candidates in the forthcoming general election campaign.
The campaign from Ireland’s largest public service union, aims to debunk “six myths” about the numbers, performance and pay of public servants. It provides information on how:
- Irish public servants are delivering more and better services as the population expands and changes
- Back-of-house administrative staff make up a tiny proportion of public servants - only 3% in the health sector
- Public servants have delivered substantial changes in work practices since benchmarking was introduced
- International surveys say Irish public servants are doing a good job
- The number of Irish public servants is proportionately smaller than in many other countries including the USA.
Speaking at the campaign launch, IMPACT general secretary Peter McLoone said the union wanted a more balanced debate about public service performance. “We acknowledge that there are many shortcomings in the system. We don’t attempt to paint a picture of perfect services or uniformly high quality. What we are attempting to do is to introduce some balance and objectivity into the debate that too often focuses on the occasional spectacular failure, and then characterises all public services and all public servants on that basis,” he said.
Mr McLoone said there was a tendency among politicians of all parties to repeat and exploit the same myths about public servants and their performance. “Public servants are seen as fair game in the difficult and complex battle to deliver better public services to a rapidly expanding and rapidly changing Ireland. Many feel like sitting ducks. It’s not easy for them to get involved in political debate and their employers are reluctant to introduce some balance. The performance and future of public services will rightly be a key battleground in the forthcoming general election and this campaign is geared to defend public services, and the people who deliver them,” he said.
The union outlines various ways in which public servants have delivered better services to the public including:
- The population had risen 8% between 2002 and 2005 while the number of public servants only increased by 4%
- Motor tax renewals and passport applications are now delivered in days rather than weeks
- Hospital admissions and discharges rose by over a quarter between 1999 and 2004
- The numbers in third level education rose by nearly 14% between 2000 and 2005
- The Revenue Commissioners customer base is rising by over 10% a year.
Speaking at the launch, administrative worker Niamh Moore, who works in medical records in a busy Dublin maternity hospital, said she and her colleagues were demoralised at being constantly characterised as a burden on the system. “Recently the language in the public debate has become so callous and insulting to ordinary staff, who are daily characterised as ‘bureaucrats’, ‘pen pushers’ and ‘bean counters’ by people who have no understanding of what we do, and who have never had to try to deliver the services. I work hard to provide a very high quality service. I may be called a ‘bureaucrat’, but my hospital would not work without my contribution and that of all my colleagues, clinical and clerical,” she said.
Information on the campaign can be accessed at www.qualitypublicservices.ie.
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