Madam, – Fintan O’Toole’s suggestion of an €80,000 limit on pay deserves public debate for many reasons (Opinion, January 27th).
Firstly, it is naïve to talk about social solidarity in a wildly inegalitarian society. Secondly, it is long past time we began to define “rich” and to identify salaries that might be condemned as unseemly and socially divisive. Thirdly, these extraordinary times should prompt us to debate what hitherto could have been dismissed as unthinkable.
It may be that an upper limit on incomes could produce the sort of savings in public expenditure that the Government wants. I am waiting for figures from the Department of Finance showing the savings achieved by limits of €200,000, €150,000 and €100,000.
In the meantime a new head of Fás is being recruited. The salary on offer is over €220,000 a year, with the possibility of a bonus up to 20 per cent of salary. In the present circumstances this is downright antagonistic. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – As an admirer of Fintan O’Toole’s crisp and resourceful intellect I salute his article in Tuesday’s edition. What an excellent blueprint for our way forward in these undoubtedly difficult days. It is exactly the type of “steer” required by the struggling Cabinet. The Government should have had a plan by now, as we are losing international credibility and this will be damaging.
I would only add two items to his list. We must immediately undertake a root-and-branch investigation of our banking system and examine publicly the political ineptitude that allowed Ireland Inc. to fall from grace so rapidly.
The financial regulator is to get a lump sum of €390,000 with his pension as he leaves in disgrace. We, the small people of Ireland, must say this is an abomination and cannot be allowed. The rot must be stopped now and Ireland’s image restored as a credible albeit struggling nation. Political sidestepping and side-swiping must cease. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Dr Adrian Honan (January 27th) extols the virtue of public service pay cuts, arguing that “in a free society” those of us who don’t want them “may resign their position”.
I’d like to stress that such a free society should work both ways by giving public service employees the choice of whether or not they want to accept such pay cuts (otherwise we’d be living in a dictatorship).
Anybody who, like Dr Honan, thinks that such pay cuts are a good idea would then be able to put his money where his mouth is, and the rest of could go on using it for putting food into the mouths of our families, rather than feeding the greedy developers and bankers who put us into this mess in the first place. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Why is it that whenever government coffers need replenishment for whatever reason, the first cry to be heard from all the usual sources is for an increase in tax – meaning PAYE income tax, of course. As usual, this was the first item to be hit in the recent Budget with the levies on wages and salaries. There has also been an increasing clamour (again from all the usual sources, many of whom are directly responsible for the disaster into which they have led us and from which they have massively profited) for working people to pay with money and jobs for their greed, irresponsibility, stupidity and in many cases criminality.
I would like to ask a few simple questions. What are the farmers (who have benefited more than any other sector with billions in grants from the EU) going to contribute to national recovery? When are the so-called professions – consultants, doctors, dentists, barristers, solicitors et al. – going to reduce their outrageous charges and fees to a rational level that ordinary people can afford? When will the retail and hospitality trades, and services like the motor trade or hairdressers reduce their prices and stop ripping us off?
Until all these people accept the need to shoulder their share of the burden, trade union leaders are perfectly right to refuse to co-operate in any way with the despicable attempts to once again, as in the 1980s, force those least able to do so to carry the burden for the rest. – Yours, etc,