Sir, – I was surprised and a trifle elated by Mary Minihan’s report (Home News, December 10th) that Ruairí Quinn was upset by those who saw it as their mission in life to undermine the public service.
I want to share in that hurt and encourage other public servants to do likewise. Yes, there are financial difficulties, and yes the public sector needs reform and improvement, (what sector doesn’t?) but this is a far cry from repeated blanket condemnation. With appropriate modesty that befits a public servant, I think it is accurate to assert that the mantra of “private is better” has been found seriously wanting over the past few years, but rather than follow the golden rule – “market rule” – the public and public sector continue to foot the bill for the swashbuckling, no holds barred borrowings of our “entrepreneurs”.
Public servants (teachers, nurses, gardaí) are needed more than ever, not only to provide some stability, continuity and predictability, as well as care and compassion, but they are needed also to pay taxes, to plug even some of the gaping hole in the national finances.
Apart from caring for your sick children, teaching them to “cipher and to sing”, and to become law- abiding citizens, public servants, and society in general need a collective re-awakening to the significant role of the public sector.
That concern needs to be part of a wider conversation regarding the kind of society we want in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland. Better to focus on that very urgent conversation, beyond simplistic either or polarisations of public v private, to a recognition that regardless of decisions made in Brussels, Frankfurt and elsewhere, a vibrant public sector will be more vital than ever.
Each individual has a responsibility to initiate, contribute to, and shape that future. Now that would be a very important public service! – Yours, etc,