This article is from page 18 of the 2009-04-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 18 JPG
THE top brass in Clare County Council may have to go without their bonuses on a permanent basis as a new opposition proposal to scrap all non-pay or expenses related pay- ments gathers steam.
At present the position of county manager with Clare County Council carries with it a salary of just under €150,000. This income is also sup- plemented by a number of perform- ance-based bonuses which are paid on reaching a number of different performance targets.
However, a new proposal which would see the performance bonuses for the county manager as well as the council’s five directors of services being abolished is expected to come before a general meeting of Clare County Council before it breaks up for the local election this June.
Mayo-native Tom Coughlan is ex- pected to be formally ratified as the new county manager at next week’s April meeting of Clare County Coun- cul. As aresult of the current embargo on recruitment in the public service, Mr Coughlan will only be appointed in the €146,845 a year position on a care-taker basis.
“County managers and directors of services are more then well remuner- ated for the responsible job that they carry out. Their positions are guar- anteed and so are their pensions,” said Cllr Martin Conway (FG), who is proposing the scheme.
“I do not see the point in having a bonus scheme in place which would appear to be self-audited, payable ir- respective of results and costly in a way that could not be sustained in good times never mind bad times.”
According to Cllr Conway, this scheme could save millions if im- plemented in all local authorities na- tionwide.
“We have a very tight budget situa- tion at the moment and the payment of bonuses across the civil service 1s something that we should seriously be looking at. It you consider that the bonuses paid in an average-sized
council could be between €50,000 and €100,000 – this proposal could lead to millions in savings if it was introduced throughout the country,” he continued.
“The people who have to pay for the current economic situation should be those at the higher levels. It is the people at the top levels of employ- ment who should have to carry the
major burden in the current situation, not those on the lower levels of pay.”
According to Cllr Conway the scheme could also be spread to other Government agencies such as Bus Eireann and the ESB.