The Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, T.D., released today the Bord Snip Nua report on recommendation for public spending cuts. The officially known Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programme sat for six months and was chaired by UCD Economist Colm McCarthy. The Group’s mandate was to examine all current Exchequer spending across all Departments and agencies, to see where expenditure and staff savings might be made, as necessary in the current financial crisis. The Minister noted that the Group had made a series of recommendations in that regard coming to €5.3 billion in total in a full year, and entailing staff reductions of 17,300. With the majority of private sector workers having no occupational pension, the accrual cost of a public pension is 30% of salary according to the report.