Sir, – In the article "Public service to return to its 'peak' size next year" (November 16th), you write that "most public service staff are scheduled to receive a second and final €1,000 increase in September 2017. The first €1,000 was paid in January of this year." In fact, only public servants with an annual salary under €31,000 received any salary adjustment in January this year, and only those paid under €65,000 will get the €1,000 in September 2017. The pension levy has been reduced but that levy in itself is an additional cut in take-home pay over and above explicit salary cuts and is still partly in place.
Furthermore, these pay adjustments will leave public service salaries lower than in 2009, so describing union attempts to restore the pre-Croke Park levels as pay increases, as done four times in the article, is misleading. These changes in the contracts of public servants covering pay and working hours were enabled by the Government’s introduction of Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Fempi) legislation, which, despite the economic recovery, has been renewed annually, most recently in June this year. Describing the unpaid additional hours which unions may seek to reverse as “part of productivity concessions agreed in the earlier Croke Park and Haddington Road accords” is therefore also rather one-sided, unless the meaning of agreement can be stretched to accepting measures imposed by law. – Yours, etc,
DONAL McGRATH,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – Given the urgent need for public-sector pay rises, I suggest that the Central Bank should relax its current rules on mortgage lending and encourage the banks generally to increase lending across the economy. The resulting increase in economic activity will increase the tax take, thus funding the pay rises. Surely such an approach can’t go wrong? Or can it? – Yours, etc,
DES KELLY,
Lucan, Co Dublin.
Sir, – The debate on public service pay appears to be ill-informed as it ignores the amounts retained by the State in PAYE and USC. – Yours, etc,
Dr TOM RIGNEY,
Cork Institute
of Technology.
Sir, – Given the current rush of demands on the public finances, could it be argued that the worst moment in recent Irish economic history was not the day the troika entered the country, but the day it left? – Yours, etc,
JOHN COVENEY,
Shankill,
Dublin 18.