Senior officials from the Department of Health are to meet the Department of Finance tomorrow to start preliminary talks about losing about 1,650 jobs over the next three years.
In the Budget, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, announced that public service job numbers will be capped at 280,000, and then cut by 5,000 over three years through retirements and voluntary departures.
However, the Government insisted that the Minister for Finance had never sought to cut 5,000 jobs from the health boards, as reported in the Sunday Tribune yesterday.
Last year, an investigation launched as part of the Government's benchmarking review revealed that health boards had hired 3,800 more staff than had been sanctioned by the Department of Finance.
In his Budget speech, and subsequently, Mr McCreevy emphasised repeatedly that the 5,000 cut would be made in the numbers "authorised" by the Department of Finance, which threatened to make the real level of cutbacks even more severe.
However, it emerged yesterday that a significant number, if not all, of the 3,800 hired without permission during 2001 have since been "regularised" during the course of 2002.
"The authorised numbers for 2001 are not the same as those authorised for 2002 - though the full and final figures will not be returned to the Department until the end of January.
"We don't believe that the 3,800 will be a problem. This was foreseen by the Department of Health," an official close to the Minister for Health, Mr Martin told The Irish Times last night.
Privately, the Department of Health believes it will have to lose approximately 1,650 jobs over the next three years - if it is to accept its share of the cutbacks imposed by the Minister for Finance.
However, there is little doubt that considerably more will have to go if health employers are to have any possibility of diverting resources to implement any element of the National Health Strategy.
Despite persistent reports that Mr Martin and Mr McCreevy are at daggers drawn, reliable sources yesterday insisted that the relationship is "perfectly civil, if competitive." "They are both doing their jobs," said one source.
Meanwhile, Mr McCreevy complimented the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, for his willingness to examine every element of the €5.5 billion education budget.
Mr Dempsey would prefer that richer families pay college fees for their children, if funds are going to be freed up to give more support to poorer students.
Mr McCreevy said he wanted to compliment Mr Dempsey's willingness to prioritise his budget.
"I wish that other officials and Ministers responded in the same way," Mr McCreevy told RTÉ's This Week programme.
He insisted once again that payment of the first 25 per cent tranche of the benchmarking report - which will cost the Exchequer €565 million next year - will only be paid if extra productivity is secured from public sector workers.
Leading Irish Congress of Trade Union figures such as IMPACT's Mr Peter McLoone have already accepted that benchmarking is "an all, or nothing deal".
"They have said that, not just me and the Taoiseach," Mr McCreevy said.
Despite criticisms, the Minister said last Wednesday's Budget was not a one-off. He said the same kind of difficult decisions will need to be taken next year and in 2005 to ensure Government spending increases moderately.
"You should not take it that the Government has taken particular decisions, but the situation is evolving," he said.
