Employers’ group Ibec has said the Government will have to introduce compulsory redundancies if it is to achieve its target of reductions in numbers in the public service.
The Government has said it wants to shed up to 25,000 public services staff in the years ahead.
However, Ibec director of industrial relations Brendan McGinty said at a conference in Dublin this morning that this could not come about on a voluntary basis only.
“It will not be possible to get the numbers being sought without compulsory redundancies,” he said.
Under the new programme for government agreed between Fine Gael and Labour, there will be between 18,000 and 21,000 job cuts in the public sector by 2014, with a further 4,000 by 2015.
Fine Gael had initially sought 30,000 job cuts from the public sector on a voluntary basis by 2014, compared to 18,000 sought by Labour.
