Kells Electoral Area
Friday, 30th January 2009

Cllr Brian Collins, Cathaoirleach of Kells Town Council and a candidate for Labour in the County Council Elections has said that the reduction in Meath County Council staffing levels is beyond the point where any level of efficiency can be maintained. 

“After consulting with senior people in the County Council it is now apparent that Meath County Council has reached a point where not only will the levels of service be seriously undermined by draconian cuts but at an operational level Meath County Council will find itself unable to maintain itself.  If people are left to do work that was once done by three or four other people then sooner or later they will break under the pressure.  I warned about this a few years ago in relation to the HSE and what we find today is significant levels of absenteeism in front line health services.  If the Government doesn’t wake up to the growing crises in this country then we will have administrative chaos beyond comprehension at all levels of the public service within a few months.”

“It was apparent to me last summer that there was a growing problem in the Department of Social Welfare.  The staff were unable to deal with the huge increase in people looking for Job Seekers Allowance.  Not until December did the Government react to this crisis and allocate an additional four staff to the office in Navan.  This was simply too little too late.  There is now a four month back-log built into the system. If the Government is looking for savings in the public sector they should start at the top and work their way down.  They should not penalize low paid, front line public sector workers; they should look at the Roddy Molloys and similar fat cats across the public sector.  They should cull the number of Junior Ministers and high paid advisors, scrap the system of unvouched expenses for TD’s, get rid of the Government jets and so on.  I was always told the best way to get a message across was to lead by example.  If the Government is not prepared to do this then why should the worker on €30,000 accept a pay cut or a member of the public accept an inadequate service.”