National public sector strike

SIOBHAN Mc CARTHY,

Woodleigh Park,

Model Farm Road,

Cork.

STEPHEN MacDONAGH,

Sonesta,

Malahide,

Co Dublin.

A chara, – I am unemployed, on training, and fully support the public sector. If we don’t stand together, public and private and unemployed, students and pensioners and those with children, we will be trampled in December. We should not stand for this patronising attitude from Leinster House. The solutions offered by the Government right now aren’t solutions at all.

It is a matter of basic ethics: don’t punish those who do not deserve it, be they public sector, doing vital jobs for communities and the nation as a whole, or the private sector, keeping the economy churning over, or the unemployed, who did very little to deserve the cuts they have already faced. – Yours etc,

MAEBH MULLAN,

Belmullet,

Co Mayo.

A chara, – As a public servant I voted No to strike action, but did picket on Tuesday in support of a majority Yes vote in my union. Today I feel sick with shame. We removed ourselves from work while thousands around the country are losing their livelihoods and homes because of flooding.

The only day of action I will support in future is a day of work by all public servants, where our day’s pay is donated to flood victims. – Is mise,

ÚNA GRANT,

Greenmill Lane,

Portlaoise,

Co Laois.

A chara, – There is one obvious solution to the threat of more public sector strikes. The Government should announce without delay that public sector workers whose earnings are below a certain threshold (say €50,000) will be exempt from any planned cuts. The required savings could then be achieved by cutting the wages of the higher earners, with little or no threat of strike action. – Is mise,

DIARMUID Ó BAOILL,

Páirc Bhailie an tSaoir,

Baile Átha Cliath.

A chara, – It is unfortunate that strikes can’t change the reality that this county is being run at a loss. It is more unfortunate that those organising and taking part in these strikes don’t realise that. – Yours, etc,

Madam, – On the day when public service workers went on strike in protest at proposed cuts to their income, roads leading to Newry were clogged. The Minister for Finance should take note that any further pay cut will in fact be Newry’s loss and not the Irish exchequer’s, as their unions claim. – Yours, etc,

Madam, – The reason 250,000 people went on strike was due to an elementary flaw in how the Government is going about cutting €1.3 billion from the State pay bill. Rather than asking for a percentage cut on every employee of the State, the Government should propose the following: 1. No cuts for any frontline services; these are the most respected and underpaid people in our society. 2. No cuts for any junior staff within the civil service, who on Tuesday were being forced, by senior staff, to lose a valuable day’s pay. 3. Massive cuts in pay and staff for the longevity-awarded, poor-performing and overpaid bureaucrats that have continuously held our country back, the bulk of the civil service.

I believe then that the Government would have the support of all hard working Irishmen to get through the years ahead. – Yours, etc,

Madam, –   Reading contributions to the Letters page (November 25th), it seems members of the public were largely unaffected by the public sector strike. Rather than gloat at this fact, perhaps they should thank the commitment of frontline staff who, without pay, worked during the strike to minimise adverse impacts on critical services.

As a doctor working in a major teaching hospital, I was impressed by my nursing and allied healthcare colleagues, as well as our ambulance crews, who provided a most adequate level of cover.

Without their volunteering, no doctor could have provided safe care to patients on Tuesday. Marginalise their contribution at your cost, readers!   – Yours, etc,

Madam, – If there are any private sector workers out there scratching their heads in bewilderment at the public sector strike, they need only read Fintan O’Toole’s article (“Swindlers still thrive in our amoral public realm, Opinion, November 24th) to understand. It exposes the mafia-style government that we need to correct if this country is to survive as properly functioning Republic. – Yours, etc,

Madam, – What does this crisis say about Ireland? It says we have a very nasty side. Things go bad and we search around for a scapegoat to kick. So, it’s the public sector (lazy, feather-bedded, overpaid parasites), artists and writers (take their tax-free status from them, thieving layabouts), foreign workers (stealing Irish jobs, welfare spongers, send ’em home) the Seanad (useless windbags, fire the lot of them), TDs (junketeers and careerists). Let’s recognise this and tone down the vitriol. It doesn’t achieve anything. – Yours, etc,

Madam, – As public servants, we have been accused in your Editorial (November 25th) of having “behaved selfishly” and of “mé féinism”. One wonders what words might be used to describe the 70 per cent of those recently surveyed in The Irish Times who are taking no pain? I understand the need for more cuts. I know I am very lucky to have a job. All that is asked for is fairness. – Yours, etc,

Madam, – Let me understand this: the Government can’t afford the current public sector pay bill, so the public sector goes on a one-day strike, then thousands of public sector workers use the day to shop in the North rather than picket, which leaves the Government with even less income, which means the Government can’t afford the public sector pay bill, so the public sector goes on strike . . . Can anyone else spot the emerging pattern? – Yours, etc,

Madam, – As usual, public debate in Ireland is carried out in an ideological vacuum. One of the key tenets of neo-liberalism was the assault on public services and trade unions. So, not content with reacting to the banking crisis by mortgaging the country to the hilt in the same, unreformed system, we turn our ire on the trade unions – the only sector with the temerity to stand up for economic alternatives. In IT terms, this would be called an infinite recursion. In ideological ones, a bankruptcy of ideas. – Yours, etc,

OWEN SWIFT.

Camden Street,

Dublin 8.