Madam, – Forgive me if I am unmoved by recent protests by public-sector workers expressing their “pain” at the pension levy. It was an obscene irony to see CPSU employees striking yesterday: their action could delay the welfare claims of real “victims” of this recession, further increasing their suffering. I am one of these victims.
I live on a welfare pittance of €204 a week which I waited several weeks to receive after redundancy last September, having paid tax for over 25 years. I have to buy food, service a mortgage and pay domestic bills. Waiting over two hours to be “processed” at the dole office is reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984, and an experience I wouldnt inflict on my worst enemy.
I want to expose the union-created myth of “low-paid” public sector workers. Public sector employees in Ireland are the best paid in Europe, receiving on average 30 per cent more than their foreign counterparts; and there are many more of them per head of population. I know this because some of my friends work in the public service.
An average teacher, nurse or Garda receives approximately €55,000 to €60,000 a year, exclusive of overtime, as well as a generous pension and guaranteed job security. Some prison wardens are being paid more than junior ministers. Not exactly my idea of pain! Your newspaper could perform a useful service by publishing and contrasting public- and private-sector salaries, because the truth has been a casualty of the propaganda. Would passing motorists be blowing their horns supportively if they saw these figures?
I have worked in the private service sector since 1982 and my salary has never exceeded €25,000, despite being represented by my “comrades” in Siptu in several pay negotiations over the years. I found that the unions were only interested in the pay and conditions of public-sector workers, whom they considered their “bread and butter”. If they believe themselves poorly paid, what have I been subsisting on all my working life?
During the past boom decade there wasn’t a single redundancy in the public sector; instead, astonishingly, numbers increased by 20 per cent! What were all the staff in the Department of Social Welfare, Fás and other such agencies doing during the virtually full employment of the Celtic Tiger years? How have the hundreds of staff in the Department of Health been engaged since they became obsolete with the establishment of the HSE?
Of course, no politician is prepared to get burned by this hot potato; despite the bullish posturing of Brian Cowen some years ago before becoming Taoiseach. Labour leader Eamon Gilmore advocates a return to “partnership” negotiations. During the last talks the union leaders trotted out jaded clichés about shouldering their share of the burden but were not prepared to recommend modest pay alignments to their members. Short sighted, selfish nimbyism. They are living in economic denial as the joke about the difference between this country and Iceland hardens into reality.
As Ireland prepare to play England at rugby, the media and politicians will talk about a win lifting the national spirit. When people like Senator Eoghan Harris next suggest “we” rally round the flag and rescue the Irish economy, perhaps they could address their cry to the public-sector patriots we have seen clogging our streets this week and to their union puppets, who want people like me to act as economic human shields as they remain untouched. The body of Connolly is turning in his grave. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Bono thinks that if it's OK for companies to move to Ireland for tax reasons, it's OK for his company to move to another country for tax reasons ( The Irish Times, February 26th). His company operates completely legally, but that doesn't mean it's completely ethical. What his sophistry omits is that most companies don't give us sanctimonious lectures on how to solve the world's problems.
If governments are to contribute more money to solve the problems he talks about, it means they must get more money from somewhere. The word for that is tax. Now, that becomes harder when profit-making companies and rich people don’t pay what many people think is their fair share.
What’s absolutely astounding is that he comes across as if he hasn’t even pondered that simple thought, yet he still manages to find all that time to go around meeting the world’s governments as if he were some sort of enlightened, conscientious individual who can speak for people who don’t have a political voice. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – David Begg’s article “Out of crisis, fear and anger comes a plan” (Opinion, February 26th), says that Ireland’s “reputational crisis. . . is the direct result of senior banking personnel, whose conduct has been well documented”.
What Mr Begg fails to mention is that he has been a director of the Central Bank since 1995, and is chairperson of its internal audit committee. Perhaps Mr Begg would care to elaborate on the actions he took as a director of the Central Bank to control the actions of banks and senior banking personnel? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – We at the bottom still await a dramatic shedding gesture from the top, beginning with the “security” cars enjoyed by our ex-presidents, ex-taoisigh and ex-judges, and other frills financed by public borrowing and, it seems now, by additional tax levies on “bottom” people.
As I’ve said in your columns already, without that dramatic gesture many at the bottom will suffer unnecessarily, and some will suffer greatly as civil strife erupts. Without that gesture, the Taoiseach’s rhetoric this weekend will fan the flames of discontent. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Are Fianna Fáil delusional? In the current economic climate, they are hiring President Obama’s website designer to dazzle us on our little north Atlantic island. How much will this cost? What will we think of their priorities if this is what is exercising them at this time? And anyway, what about our own young website designers — many out of work and longing for a commission.
For shame, Fianna Fáil, get a grip and stop buying baubles. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – We know we have a problem. We know there is no money in the pot. We know that the Government must get spending under control, make the necessary cuts and maintain stability. Otherwise confidence in Ireland will fall, increasing the cost of borrowing and therefore increasing the national debt.
We know this means everyone must take a pay cut. For many that will be 100 per cent, for others 10 to 20 per cent. We know that the la-la land salaries must be slashed. We know decent standards of regulation and accountability must be established.
What I don’t know is how anyone could believe that widespread industrial action is the solution. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I think the loss of Asgard IIcan be compared to the banking crisis. The situation arose in September last, there was a window of opportunity when swift action could have allowed recovery. Instead the Government commissioned a report and waited.
When months later, the report was published, the rot had already set in. It was too late to act and nothing can be saved.
We have lost our flagships, both business and naval. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – In February 1812, soon after he had been appointed Keeper of the Privy Purse to King George III and Queen Charlotte, Andrew Drummond of Drummond’s Bank in London wrote to his young 25-year-old cousin Henry Drummond, who had just become a junior partner of the bank.
His letter was full of wise advice, not out of place for bankers and politicians in today’s situation almost 200 years later:
“What is deposited with you is not Yours – No, it is the property of the confiding Friend who places his reliance on you. It is the property of the Widow and the Orphan who regard it as safe in your Hands, in our case moreover it is the property of the Sovereign of the Country who selects us for that deposit because he expects ( expressly has declared that to be his motive) to find in us, the nice Honour of Gentlemen added to the common honesty Integrity of Men of Business.”
Drummond’s Bank subsequently, in 1924, became part of the Royal Bank of Scotland: alas, how the mighty have fallen. – Yours, etc,