Madam, – Were we to follow the logic of Aidan Regan’s letter (June 20th), we would double all wages and salaries with no negative impact on our economy! Mr Regan goes on to assert that the “market” has little influence on the outcome of collective bargaining – this, unfortunately, has been the case in the sheltered sectors of the Irish economy, but it’s a nonsense in the real world.
There was palpable bemusement throughout Europe when bankrupt Ireland restored the minimum wage to a level higher than in all bar one EU member state – no wonder Michael Noonan’s begging bowl is going empty!
It’s high time academic economists and socialist ideologues woke up to the harsh fact that real world economics require us to cut our cloth to suit our measure. – Yours, etc,