Sir, – The editorial "Mismanaging expectations" (August 27th) claims that "the cut in public sector pay in 2009, via the public service pension levy, was offset for many by continued payment of increments".
The reference to “the cut” strongly implies that it was the only reduction; in fact there have been four pay cuts since 2009.
These were: the pension levy referred to as “the cut”; a pay cut across all grades, even the lowest paid, in 2010; an explicit pay cut for those earning above €65,000 in 2013; a cut in the hourly rate for all grades, again in 2013, by increasing working hours with no compensation. That this is a pay cut is clearly proven by a corresponding fall in overtime rates.
The reference to increments offsetting pay cuts “for many” needs to be backed up by figures. What percentage of public sector workers were in receipt of increments over this period?
The editorial goes on to complain that the “the remarkable pension benefit for retirees – the pay parity link . . . has been retained”.
This link has not been retained for new civil servants. They join a new pension scheme whose payments will be based on career average earnings, not final salary, and where pension increases will be linked to consumer price index (CPI) changes.
Furthermore pay parity for existing pensioners has been used only to implement pension cuts since 2010 (the first for all pensions over €12,000, the second on pensions over €32,500), and the Government has publicly made clear its intention to link existing pensions to the CPI, as well and eliminate pay parity for all public sector pensioners. – Yours, etc,
DONAL McGRATH,
Heathervue,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – I have not often in recent years so heartily applauded The Irish Times. However your editorial "Mismanaging expectations" travels very much in the right direction for me and I am sure many others.
The deplorable bidding by politicians for our votes is deeply symptomatic of a dysfunctional political class that treats us like children asking for more. We need vision and ideas.
Why do we not, for example, look at domestic Irish employers and ask in a serious way, “How can we help you to create and save jobs and stay in Ireland?”
Every serious Irish success, like it or not, is being driven by tax breaks from our corporation tax rate, to capital gains tax breaks given to most property investors, including owner-occupiers.
But, curiously, our own entrepreneurial and SME job-creating class has been systematically hammered by ever heavier taxation and regulation and a nearly indiscriminate blitz of onerous new measures.
Luckily for us, we are being saved from disaster by our multinational “friends”. But how long will they remain “friends” is an issue for many.
Just ask Barack Obama. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN KELLY,
The Hill,
Monkstown,
Co Dublin.