Sir, – I am a public servant but a private individual. I regard your publication of my name and salary in your paper (Education Today, December 6th) as an outrageous intrusion into my private life. You should be ashamed of yourself and your publication. How dare your reporters McGuire and Flynn seek to provoke extremely hardworking individuals to justify their salaries and work? For my part, I plead guilty to having worked hard since boyhood to jump every hurdle there is to achieve my current position. I have been a medical professional for 29 years and have worked in four countries over two continents.
Indeed I recently realised that I have literally lived in hospitals away from family and friends to serve my patients for a cumulated total of about eight years of those 29!
I am all for debate and reflection. The country is at a very difficult time and in a difficult place economically. I do not personally know anybody who has not been significantly affected by the turmoil. For some it has been devastating. However, the fact that there are people who are fortunate to be in employment and quite a number (in all walks of life) who are privileged to have high salaries is not the issue, surely, in a fully functioning democracy?
I would suggest that contributing to the wellbeing of the nation by doing one’s work to the best of one’s ability and paying one’s taxes in an honest and upfront manner are what is required at a minimum. It is the job of our politicians and legislators to steer the economy with as much wisdom and fairness as they can, mandated by our citizens. We have been badly let down in recent times in this regard. However naked green-eyed begrudgery, demanding salary caps and public vilification will not turn anything around.
The work of your reporters can probably be compared to that of the “tricoteuses” (knitting women) who acted as rabble rousers beside the guillotine during the Terror following the French revolution. Happily that period came to an end when the architect of the policy, Robespierre, was himself beheaded in front of the Mob. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I recently achieved the highest level of academic achievement, a PhD.
One might presume I would now be proud to be able to write a letter to The Irish Times and sign off as “Dr” for the first time.
Instead I’m left wondering what over a decade of academic study was for. There was a time when a doctorate would guarantee a well- paid position, now, in Ireland at least, it guarantees nothing but the right to call yourself doctor.
The current moratorium on public service appointments prevents my generation of PhD graduates from gaining academic employment. What hope have those who’ve just gained their Masters or undergrad degrees? To make matters worse your paper reports (Education Today, December 6th) that there are 191 academics on salaries of over €150,000, with almost half of these on salaries over €200,000.
If each of these academics had their salaries cut by €50,000 they’d still earn at least €100,000. Then over €9.5 million could be allocated to hiring or holding on to the next generation of academics.
If Ireland’s top academics really care about the future of our universities and the students they are paid to educate, then surely they should take President Higgins’s lead and take considerable voluntary pay cuts, with the condition that this money is reinvested into hiring rather than firing talented young academics. – Yours, etc,