Sir, - The closure of Packard Electric and the increase in the unemployment figures has led to the predictable calls from conservative politicians and commentators for lower wages and lower taxes. This simplistic response would only exacerbate the already widening poverty gap which is the root cause of many of our social ills like drug abuse and crime. Blaming workers' rates of pay and conditions, after the Packard workers had bent over backwards by accepting 600 redundancies and working 41 hours for 39 hours' pay, is a bit like the authorities in the North blaming nationalists for a tendency to accept insecure jobs and living in areas of high unemployment (!) for their much higher unemployment rate.
If we follow the advice of right wing experts and decide to compete globally on wages and conditions we would be entering a downward vicious spiral that ends with Third World destitution. Already we have seen the divisive effect of the wage restrictions and job insecurity of the PCW/PESP/PNR. Growth and profits have soared but unemployment continues to rise and the poverty gap widens, creating growing social problems.
As the Telesis report recommended 15 years ago, we need to move away from an over dependence on increasingly mobile MNCs which transfer relatively little technology to Ireland (as our low corporation tax encourages them to carry out R&D and other labour intensive activities in their home country), towards indigenous, high value added industries based on our natural resources, including the richness of our culture and the creativity of our people. Prime examples are organic gardening and farming and environmental protection by waste reduction, recycling and re use. Another example is multimedia technology and its application to the arts, education, languages, etc. For this to work, it has been shown that it cannot be left to the private sector which is driven by short term profits. Rather, it needs an integrated strategy of education, training and, instead of useless schemes, empowering local communities to establish viable enterprises in these new growth areas. As an example, it is obvious that all of our schools, not just those in better off areas, should be provided with adequate computing resources so that all of our children can participate equally in the hi tech future. The cost of this provision could be greatly reduced and real jobs created in areas of high unemployment and the environment protected by setting up computer recycling co ops to reuse, upgrade and maintain older computers which would be dumped, and to develop software for schools and voluntary bodies. - Yours, etc.,
Willow Park Road,
Dublin 11.