Sir, – "It is worth remembering that the source of Ireland's recent financial woes and its current industrial relations problems lie in the public service benchmarking process of more than a decade ago." This is the gospel according to Stephen Collins in his Saturday opinion column ("Garda deal could bring down the Government", Inside Politics, November 5th).
I am glad that he has put me straight on all that. Here was foolish me thinking that the fault lay with a Fianna Fáil government made up of economic illiterates who encouraged and promoted a speculative property bubble, who actively enabled gambling by reckless banks, and who refused to regulate and control this recklessness. I now realise that I was completely in error to believe that Fianna Fáil’s blanket guarantee of the banks, socialising billions of euro in private debt, had something to do with “Ireland’s recent financial woe”. Perhaps I should apologise to Fianna Fáil.
Equally, I probably should apologise to the Fine Gael-Labour government for blaming it for paying billions to the unsecured bond-holders not covered by the original guarantee and for the blind deference and obedience shown to the European Central Bank.
Here is the puzzle though: the average wage increase, under benchmarking, paid to lower- and middle-ranking public service workers was about 9 per cent before tax. A considerable proportion of this increase went straight back to the government in tax, so the actual net percentage paid to workers was much lower. How could such a modest increase destroy the country?
But I am sure Stephen Collins knows best. However, he may have in mind the Buckley report, which at about the same time awarded salary increases of up to 33 per cent for an elite in the public service. For example, TDs received an award of 19 per cent and the taoiseach received a 22 per cent increase. Other huge increases were awarded to top civil servants, the judiciary, as well as the top layer of academics in third-level institutions.
The Buckley report mirrored what was happening in the private sector where a managerial and professional elite secured huge gains in income. Somehow, the Buckley report has been wiped from the public record while the modest increases secured for the bulk of public service workers are decried. These gains, of course, have long since been clawed back with little or no opposition from the bigger trade unions. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL WADDELL,
Kilmainham,
Dublin 8.
A chara, – Stephen Collins’s opinion piece was an extraordinarily one-sided commentary on a complex issue. He harks back to the public service benchmarking process of more than a decade ago as “the source of Ireland’s recent financial woes, and its current industrial relations problems”. No reference here to the role played by speculators and bankers. Not a word about the bank bailout that cost the taxpayer €64 billion gross (a figure which, if we’re lucky, may eventually reduce to something in the order of €40 billion net). No reference either to the unique circumstances of the Garda, and in particular the plight of younger members who are expected to risk life and limb in the course of their duty for a salary of €24,000 a year.
Your columnist refers to the relatively modest increases proposed by the Labour Court as “black rent”. The overall cost of the package is reckoned to be in the region of €40 million per annum. By my reckoning it would take a thousand years (a millennium!) for this sum to add up to the €40 billion given to the banks. So if the proposed Garda increases are “black rent,” what terminology should we use for the money paid to the banks? – Is mise,
JOHN GLENNON,
Hollywood,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – Stephen Collins cautions us that it is worth remembering Ireland’s recent financial woes lie in the public service benchmarking process of more than a decade ago. My memories of our recent financial woes include a virtual nationalisation of our financial institution, an international bailout, and the ensuing hardship.
Memory is selective – therefore a full analysis of all the facts leads to a more balanced and informed view. – Yours, etc,
OWEN FOLEY,
Oughterard, Co Galway.
Sir, – I find it astonishing that the Lansdowne Road agreement is such a large document that nobody has read it in its entirety. In the last few months it has surprised the entire country, when new details of pay increases have emerged from somewhere within it. When disgruntlement emerged about newer teachers’ pay, members of the TUI and INTO got a surprise and significant pay rise, which must have been contained within some previously unread part of the document. It now appears the agreement also contains hidden benefits for the Garda.
It seems to me that the Government is able to interpret the terms of the agreement in whatever way it chooses. – Yours, etc,
RICHARD FOX,
Kilcoole, Co Wicklow.
Sir, – Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohue is like the hoary parish priest of yore who arrives too late to the barn dance to warn of the dangers of fornication. The Lansdowne Road wallflowers are already gawping in awe at how brinkmanship and devilishly clever tactics mean that those who dare, win. Or at the very least, head home into the night with more money and confidence than they cycled to the dance with. – Yours, etc,
PATRICIA MULKEEN,
Ballinfull,
Co Sligo.
A chara, – Now that the Government has failed to kick ass in the Garda strike, it can be safely predicted that it will kick ASTI instead as a reprisal. – Is mise,
PEADAR Mac MAGHNAIS,
Baile Atha Cliath 5.