Fine Gael has proposed a €1.7 billion cut in the public sector pay bill, through a combination of pay cuts and 10,000 redundancies.
They said the savings could be achieved in 2010 through a combination of freezing increments, graduated reductions above earnings of €30,000, local payroll savings of 2 per cent and through redundancies.
The pay cuts proposed would only affect those earning more than €30,000 .
Fine Gael are suggesting that anyone earning between €30,000 and €40,000 would have any pay over and above €30k reduced by 5 % .
People earning between €40,000 and €100,000 would have a reductin of 10% and anyone earning more than €100,000 would have a 20% cut.
Fine Gael also said it would make savings of €400 million in the social welfare budget, net of job creation measures.
It said it did not propose any cuts to the old age pension or to the child benefit allowance.
It said, however, that given the reduction in the consumer price index there was scope for a 3 per cent cut to adult working-age payments, excluding those to carers, the disabled and the blind. In addition, it proposes a weekly €50 cut for under 25s who refuse offers of work or training after six months on the dole. These measures would raise €257 million in one year.
Fine Gael also plan to make €386 million in cuts within the “big bureaucracies” such as the HSE, Fás and CIE, through the elimination or merging 150 quangos (€88 million); through cutting payments of professionals and third party procurement ( €431 million) and through €199 million in programme reductions outlined in the McCarthy report on public service spending.