Time to play tough with the public sector?

First it was the blue flu, then the angels on the picket line during the first national nurses' strike. No one complained, or practically no one. After all, the cases of both were seen by the public as valid.

The latest bugs hitting the Garda's plans to introduce a new computer system are altogether a different matter. The Minister has said Partnership 2000 guidelines cannot be breached and there is no more money on offer. However, cutting the working hours of a group which already taxes the public purse with its overtime requirements is simply a pay rise by another name.

For the Government, playing tough with the public sector could go down well with the private sector, among both employers and employees. There is anger at the constant demands from the public sector for a larger share in the Celtic Tiger. After all, by and large, civil servants were not the ones on the dole when the last recession bit; nor, for the most part, will they be when the current boom cycle eventually turns down again.

One thing we will all still be stuck with, though, is the public sector pay bill, continually fattened by such claims.