Madam, - The recent benchmarking report has been greeted with uproar by public sector unions. This is an understandable reaction given that expected pay increases were not delivered to many workers.
However, in my opinion there is one group of public servants who are particularly entitled to feel outraged: the men and women of the Permanent Defence Forces who received no pay increases whatever.
In the coming weeks and months, hundreds of Irish soldiers will be deployed to serve in Chad and the Central African Republic. There they will risk their lives to bring peace to one of the most dangerous and volatile regions of the world. Given these circumstances, it beggars belief that such a brave and noble group of men and women have been denied a pay increase by the benchmarking body.
Unfortunately, this official indifference and contempt is nothing new in Ireland. In the 1960s our troops were sent to war in the Belgian Congo. They fought heroically and brought great honour to their nation. In return their country rewarded them with miserable wages, rat-infested barracks, derisory pensions and political apathy.
It should be noted that the politicians who have volunteered our troops for overseas conflict have been awarded magnificent pay increases for their heroic service to the State.
As they cruise around the country in their State cars, they would do well to remember the salaries of those who are risking their lives for Ireland. - Yours, etc,
Dr RUAIRI HANLEY, Drogheda, Co Louth.