Madam, – I see that Siptu is prepared to strike for full implementation of the pay agreement which was reached over a year ago.
When the current national pay deal was agreed in mid-2008, the annual inflation rate as per the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 4.3 per cent, or 3.2 per cent using the EU Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP). As I recall, the general expectation at the time was that inflation in 2009 would be about 3 per cent and the deal – 6.5 per cent over 21 months – reflected this. What has happened is that inflation is now minus 6.5 per cent on an annual basis (CPI) or minus 3.0 per cent (HICP).
In the past, when inflation turned out higher than previously expected, unions demanded upward adjustment of agreed deals. How can they object to any downward adjustment when things go the other way, and when the ability to pay (especially of the Government) is so obviously a problem? Also, last year some of the union negotiators were adamant that the CPI be used as the basis for pay negotiations, reflecting the fact that its treatment of housing costs at the time had an upward bias.
If they still stand by the CPI, the difference between annualised inflation 12 months ago and today – a fall of 10.8 percentage points – is a measure of how much things have changed. Time for the unions to ditch their allegiance to the CPI? Maybe we could save money by relying only on the HICP as a measure of inflation. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – If ministerial pensions for serving TDs are regarded as “legitimate expectations” according to the legal advice given by the Attorney General to the Cabinet, why should payments and pensions to recipients of welfare not also be regarded as such? – Yours, etc,