THE IRISH Congress of Trade Unions has said it is abundantly clear the Government does not have a mandate to sign-off on its national recovery plan.
Speaking yesterday, the president of congress, Jack O’Connor, said it was always reluctant to call on a democratically-elected government to vacate office.
However, he said the country was now in a space “where it is quite abundantly clear the present Government does not have a mandate to sign off on a plan as controversial as this”.
“It would be better if the people were afforded an opportunity to exercise a choice in matters [that have] as far-reaching implications as these,” he said.
At a press conference to highlight tomorrow’s protest rally against the Government’s austerity plan, congress again strongly criticised the four-year plan and urged that the public finances should be improved over a longer period.
Congress general secretary David Begg forecast that the Government’s four-year plan could cost 90,000 jobs.
He said the plan would fail in its intended purpose; and said its publication did not appear to have had the desired effects given the rise in the bond yields in Portugal and Spain yesterday.
“Congress is pro-European and always has been and supports Ireland’s continued membership of the euro zone. We want to see this crisis resolved in a positive way.”
He said congress supported the essence of the German government proposal that creditors should be part of the solution whether it be through equity swaps or otherwise.
“We have to try to put out there that at some point a recognition must come that our capacity to repay this debt is not unlimited. And if we do not do something else about it, sooner or later it is going to end up in a situation where that debt will fall to be restructured,” Mr Begg.
“It would be better now to go about the matter in an orderly way and try to reschedule the debt over a longer period of time.”
He said this should be linked into the congress proposals for dealing with the fiscal problem.
He feared the plan would deliver a shock to the economy which would prevent growth.
“Austerity on its own will cause further deterioration,” he said.
Mr Begg declined to estimate the numbers that would attend tomorrow’s march and rally.
However, congress is putting a lot of effort into getting large numbers to turn out. It has organised press advertising and is running a Facebook campaign aimed at encouraging as many people as possible to attend. It also said people would be travelling by bus from around the country to participate.
Mr Begg said the march and rally would be a family-friendly event which would be peaceful, good humoured and very well stewarded.
Those taking part will assemble at 11.30am on Winetavern Street, Dublin and proceed along the north quays to the GPO on O’Connell Street where a rally will take place. There will be a programme of entertainment and speeches for about one hour. The master of ceremonies will be Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole and artists such as Christy Moore and Frances Black will perform.
Mr O’Connor also revealed at the press conference that his own union, Siptu, had lost about 10,000 members last year as a result of job losses in the construction and services sector. He forecast a further significant drop in membership this year.
Asked about the salaries of union leaders, he said he had taken a 10 per cent reduction in recent times and was now paid about €112,000.
He said he had also taken a 20 per cent cut in pension provision as a result of difficulties in the union’s pension fund.