Sir, – I am a public servant. Along with the great majority of civil and public servants, I have job security, and when I retire I will receive a lump sum and a guaranteed pension. So I am very well-off compared to many people working in the private sector, and compared to the elderly, the disabled and the unemployed who have to depend on relatively meagre State benefits to support themselves.
My salary, retirement lump sum and pension, together with those of my colleagues in the civil and public services, account for approximately a third of all annual State spending. Apparently that is not enough.
Where is the money for across-the-board public sector pay rises going to come from – more state borrowing (assuming people will lend us money to pay for public sector pay rises), increased taxes, reduced state benefits for the vulnerable and voiceless in our society or further reduced state capital spending? These are not good options.
There is also the apparently overlooked fact that Ireland Inc is currently a cockleshell in an international political and financial environment that is going through convulsions unparalleled since the 1930s. But never mind, we can always rely on self-serving politicians and the magic money tree.
It seems to be a case of every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost, the hindmost being anyone who is not a public servant. – Yours, etc,
ARTHUR BOLAND,
Dublin 2.
Sir, – The recent silly statements by Pascal Donohoe and his colleagues remind me of the famous Monty Python sketch. “This is not a dead Lansdowne Road Agreement. It’s just sleeping.” As any union member can point out to the Minister for Public Expenditure, the Lansdowne Road Agreement is dead, it is no more, it has ceased to be, it is bereft of life, it rests in peace, it is an ex-agreement. I’d be laughing if the Government’s imitation of Michael Palin were not so ludicrous. – Yours, etc,
JIM BYRNE,
Dun Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Now would seem an opportune time for industrial action, as we appear to have a lean-to Government, with Fianna Fáil being the opposing supporting structure. – Yours, etc,
PADRAIG J O’CONNOR,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.