The Government has been accused by one of the State’s largest union of appointing a “champion of pay cuts and a race to the bottom” as an economic advisor just three weeks before the emergency Budget in April.
The General Secretary of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union, Owen Wills, said he was “dismayed” with the decision by Minister for Finance to appoint Dr Alan Ahearne, one the country’s leading economists, as an adviser.
Dr Ahearne, who has written for The Irish Times on economic issues over the past few years, was one of the first economists in the country to warn that the property bubble would crash, with devastating consequences for the economy. He addressed the Fianna Fáil parliamentary annual away gathering last year and has been consulted by Mr Lenihan in recent months about the deteriorating economic situation.
He is a lecturer in economics at the JE Carines School of Business and Economics at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Dr Ahearne joined the staff of NUI Galway in 2005 and before that he was senior economist in the international finance division of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington DC.
He also writes a weekly column on property for the Sunday Independent. He is a regular contributor on economic issues on the BBC, CNBC, RTÉ, Newstalk and Today FM.
But Mr Wills said Dr Ahearne had been advising “some of the most rabidly anti-union employers in the country in sectors such as construction and electrical contracting on how to squeeze more out of their workers.
“In fact he appeared as an expert witness for employers in the electrical contracting industry last January, where he supported their application to the Labour Court to have the Registered Employment Agreement for the sector cancelled,” he said.
“Admittedly the Department of Finance is sadly lacking in expertise on banking, as it has demonstrated repeatedly during the presence crisis. But what message is the Minister sending out to trade unionists and PAYE workers generally by appointing a champion of pay cuts and a race to the bottom to his inner council?”