Sir, - Your columnist Dick Walsh (Opinion, 7th March) seems to resent my honesty in explaining that tax cuts directed at the lower paid would have benefitted ISME members by helping to keep them more competitive. Would he prefer it if I held the high ground of sanctimonious self-sacrifice and political correctness by claiming that ISME members run their businesses to create employment for the common good?
On his point on low pay he continues with vacuous comments about SMEs. If he read ISME, FORFAS, ESRI or CSO reports he would know that the SME sector makes about 4 to 5 per cent profit and cannot afford higher rates of pay. Since this is an average figure, some may be able to pay more, but some are incurring losses at the existing rates of pay. Or does he propose taxpayer support, as with semi-States?
Mr Walsh goes on to criticise my attitude to the public service, which he describes as unhealthy. Why unhealthy? Is it now part of the Left's dogma that we must accept the status quo? The public service is obviously inefficient and worse. It refuses to learn from experiences in New Zealand and elsewhere. Its Victorian structures are overdue reform and it is patently obvious from commercial failures, blood transfusion disasters, claims for hearing loss, the Beef Tribunal, BSE, extradition of a paedophile, planning scandals, wasted taxpayers' investments in TEAM, etc., etc. that much is wrong in the public service in Ireland. Or does Mr Walsh live in a different Ireland?
Employees in the private sector are not afraid of losing their jobs, but unlike employees in the public sector they are aware that their future economic well-being is tied to that of their employer. State employees, on the other hand, know that regardless of the damage they inflict on their employers, such as Aer Lingus and Aer Rianta last Saturday, their cosy employment is secure for life. If not, they will receive a huge compensation package paid for by the overburdened private sector.
Or does Mr Walsh suggest that the solution is to nationalise all businesses so we can have a Utopia where everyone is paid a minimum of £25,000 a year and we entrepreneurs can take our compensation elsewhere? I know Dick's reference to the New Right is intended as a PC insult, but I will proudly wear the label. - Yours, etc.,
Managing Director, Hytherm Ltd, Navan, Co Meath.