Call for attack compensation

A leading public sector trade union has called on the Government to introduce a statutory compensation scheme for officials attacked and injured in the course of their work.

In his presidential address at the start of the annual delegate conference of the Public Service Executive Union (PSEU) in Killarney yesterday, Seán Beades said members of the Social Welfare Investigation Branch, the Customs and Excise section of the Revenue Commissioners, and personnel in the Customs National Drugs Teams were often subject to abuse and threats of assault.

"Indeed there have been cases where our members have been assaulted while carrying out their official duties".

He added: "We hear an awful amount regarding the modernisation of the public service. I now call on the Government, as our responsible employer, to introduce a statutory compensation scheme for our members who are assaulted in the course of carrying out their official duties."

Mr Beades said that in the climate of assaults on staff, "it was nauseating to hear calls from people that should know better for the legalisation of the importation of drugs as some sort of panacea for all our ills".

"For many years these same people refused to accept that there was a drug problem as it only affected the deprived areas suffering from social exclusion," he said.

The PSEU represents staff at executive level in the civil and public service as well as in companies such as Eircom.

Mr Beades strongly supported the Towards 2016 national agreement which will deliver pay increases of 10 per cent over a phased period from last December to September 2008.

He disagreed with members who believed that the union could negotiate better pay and conditions through a "go-it-alone" approach.

"It is quite clear to me that the union would have great difficulties in processing such a claim and even if we were to do so, it is certain that we could achieve no significant gains over the terms of Towards 2016 and that payment would not necessarily be from December 1st, 2006."

He said it was true that inflation had been somewhat higher than anticipated but that it was not correct to state that prices had outstripped pay increases.

Mr Beades said he would like to see the next government increasing tax credits and widening tax bands. This would represent a more equitable system of tax reform than the proposals being promised in the run-up to the general election.

He said the union would have a major task to ensure that all members remaining in Dublin after the Government's decentralisation initiative were provided with meaningful jobs. However decentralisation would lead to a more equitable distribution of promotional opportunities throughout the Civil Service.