Sir, – Pat Leahy (Analysis, April 9th) describes the resumption of public pay negotiations as a "dance".
It would be more accurate to describe these “negotiations” as a total charade.
The 350,000 employees in the public sector will have their union negotiators representing them and they will be seeking the best deal possible for their members.
The employer side, who should be seeking the best deal for the hard-pressed taxpayer are, wait for it, represented by senior civil servants who are themselves public sector employees. The various Ministers overseeing this process are also public sector employees insofar as they draw salaries and accrue pension benefits from the public purse.
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Any concessions made to the union side will have a knock-on increased cost effect on pay and pensions throughout the public sector, including that of Ministers and politicians.
So we have the ludicrous position that any concessions made by the employer side will directly financially benefit those very people making and overseeing those concessions.
In effect, the public sector is negotiating with itself.
There is not one representative from the private sector taxpayers who ultimately totally finance the public sector. This is the majority sector in the country which is made up of employees and self-employed who are exposed to open-market competion every working day of their lives. They live and die economically based on their performance and results and they enjoy none of the protected pay and pension benefits of the public sector.
And they are to be represented by civil servants who have been cosseted in a protected bubble for most of their working lives. – Yours, etc,
PAUL MacCARTHY,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.