Jobs Freeze Announced As Economy Enters Winter Of Discontent

The government has announced plans for a recruitment freeze throughout the public service, initiating the public spending cuts about to take hold.

The cutbacks have been drawn up by Finance Minister Brian Lehnihan and include a range of policies to meet the vastly reduced government budget for this year, as the economy grinds to near deficit level.

Mr Lenihan will announce in the coming weeks that no new staff can be taken on in the civil service or State agencies, even to replace existing vacant posts, while temporary workers will find their deals will not be renewed.

There will also be a clampdown on hiring external consultants as well as marketing and media.

It is unsure how unions and workers will take the extra burden, as previous recruitment freezes have led to entire service providers taking major industrial action, such as recent protests by mental health service nurses, after the implementation of such a policy last month.

The government is also considering a major redundancy scheme for public sector workers, to be aimed at reducing the number of non-frontline staff, such as managers and administration staff. Anything up to 1,000 staff could be laid off in the HSE.

The Taoiseach Brian Cowen said the cutbacks were a stark lesson on fiscal irresponsibility.

"Unless necessary corrective action is taken promptly and appropriately, more painful adjustments, with less scope for sensible prioritisation, inevitably follow," he said.

However, General Secretary of IMPACT Peter McLoone has hit back, saying a wage freeze is an "absurd proposition". The trade union leader was speaking on RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland about the future of negotiations involving trade unions, the employers and the Government.

He said this was the most difficult time he could remember but the difficulties were not of the magnitude of the 1980s and 90s.

(DW/JM)