Are we people or sheeple?

Considering the next payment to the bondholders is due very shortly I was wondering is there anything we wont take?

Corporation tax which at least initially will be a flat tax most felt by the poor. This unfair tax should not be introduced until it is properly means tested.

Broadcasting charge which will especially effect the less well off in society.

New minimum charge for alcohol which will hurt the less well off in society especially those whos partners drink and who are already struggling to feed their families. The only one who will benefit are the publicans who surprisingly enough have a lot of TDs and their families in their ranks.

Water charges. Once again a flat charge across all income levels which will hit hard large less well off families.

I could keep going but you get my drift. Now I realise money has to be got from somewhere but surely cuts should start from the top down rather then the bottom up. How much austerity are the politicians feeling at the moment?

So what do you think?

Sheeple.


Civil servant to get €430,000 retirement deal

The top civil servant in the Department of Health is to step down in the coming months with a retirement package of over €430,000 and an annual pension of €107,000 per year.

Michael Scanlan, 56, was secretary general of the Department of Health for seven years. Under the terms of his contract, he will receive a lump sum of €323,385 and a severance gratuity of €107,795.

Mr Scanlan is not availing of the February deal whereby public servants retiring by the end of that month will have their pensions calculated based on their 2009 salary. He will retire in April.

Mr Scanlan spent most of his 38-year career at the Department of Finance. He worked on the Gleeson and Buckley review bodies on public sector remuneration.

He was responsible for public expenditure policy early in the last decade and oversaw expenditure of the Sustaining Progress social partnership agreement. He was involved with the failed decentralisation project.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "Arrangements are being made by the top level appointments committee for the appointment of a successor by open competition.

"In accordance with the terms of his contract, he will qualify for a pension and lump sum based on his actual service plus just over 1.5 added years [ie a total of 40 years’ reckonable service] and a special severance gratuity of one half of his annual salary."

Mr Scanlan will step down as HSE chairman but has offered to keep on working on the Department of Health reform agenda — without any charge.

"Mr Scanlan has confirmed to the minister that he would be happy to play an appropriate role after his retirement, on a pro-bono basis, in helping to support the reform agenda in health and the minister intends to pursue this once a successor has been appointed," the spokesman said.

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