Comments on: Ireland’s Exchequer Cuts

By: Anthony

Anthony — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:09:32 +0000

Exactly King's Bard.

To me this is bottom line. It really bothers me that our politicians are in their jobs purely for monetary gain, 99% of them anyway. There appears to be no genuine interest in the people that vote them in. They are a bland, brainless bunch of overpaid twits that have done a fantastic job of sending OUR nation down the shitter.And I also wish that they would stop putting themselves in the same category as other (proper) world leaders.

By: King's Bard

King's Bard — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:22:51 +0000

When Brian Cowan and the rest of the cabinet stop comparing their salaries to Obama and Brown and decide to pay themselves the equivalent of the Belgian or Luxemburg counterparts then maybe they could talk to the rest of us about pay cuts and higher taxes.

By: OrganDonor

OrganDonor — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:52:28 +0000

I heard there was a 1.6% pay rise on the table for Civil Servants earning over â‚¬93,000 on Monday night before the talk "broke down"

I dunno whether or not it was approved or not though..

By: Bock

Bock — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:11:03 +0000

All I'd ask people to do is keep the focus where it belongs: on the fat cats. Politicians, property developers, bankers, bishops and the rest.

Blaming PAYE workers is missing the point. Ask Shell E&P where your gas royalties are. Ask Cardinal Brady why you paid 1.2 billion to cover the abuse claims while his crowd gave almost nothing. Ask Brian Lenihan how much it will cost to recapitalise the Irish banks because all their assets are in toxic loans. 8 billion? Ten billion? Twenty billion? Nobody knows.

Ask all those questions first, and then we can start on the workers.

By: Pacman

Pacman — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:42:56 +0000

Ok Bock fair enough, I accept that your point did also refer to private sector workers being made take the blame. I've probably heard too many public sector union leaders trying playing the â€œah-there-you-go-trying-to-blame-the-public-serviceâ€ card while attempting to insulate their members from any form of pay cuts. The point is we are where we are and I donâ€™t think some subliminal â€˜divide and conquerâ€™ strategy was needed to make ordinary private sector workers to look at the public sector and say â€œhang on, what about them taking a bit of a hit as well.â€

The hit that is made on public sector pay needs to be well thought out, it needs to be fair and equitable but it does need to be made. The previous Government allowed the stamp duty/VAT on house sales bubble fuel growth in the public sector pay bill that just was not sustainable when the bubble inevitably burst. Now, that is not to say we could not have supported the current size of the public sector if we had a more equitable and wider tax base but, hey, we voted for the gobshites.

By: C'est La Craic

C'est La Craic — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:40:17 +0000

The sad thing is that they'll probably vote for them again.

By: de fan

de fan — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:10:29 +0000

What was the tiger economy? For most workers all it meant was you could get a job if you wanted one.
Everyone who made vast sums of money are still being protected, builders have told the banks to fuck off and wont even pay the interest on their loans.
mind you a lot of people had their heads in the sand before the last election, and voted the same lot in.

By: C'est La Craic

C'est La Craic — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:52:15 +0000

Divide and conquer, not exactly original but still as effective as ever. Put one group against the other and watch them as they race to the bottom.

By: Bock

Bock — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:40:57 +0000

On the contrary.

I'm saying that blame is being placed on all workers, both public and private sector, to distract attention from where the real responsibility lies.

And what's even more insidious, public-sector and private-sector workers are being turned against each other while those who caused this are walking away whistling.

By: Pacman

Pacman — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:37:45 +0000

Are you not being a bit over simplistic in your analysis Bock? Ok, its pretty much accepted that the blame for the current mess does lie with the big builders, developers, bankers and all those who over-reached themselves by buying multiple properties â€˜leveragedâ€™ on the back of the over-inflated prices of their family homes. Its agreed that Fianna Fail have royally fucked things up not only by their toxic relationship with the builders and developers but by allowing the economy to become completely dependant on sources of revenue that were, essentially, short term, windfall taxes. Its acknowledged that those on the higher incomes should now have to pay substantially more in taxes, be they taxes on wealth, property, income, whatever. However, the fact remains that the Government are looking at a shortfall of around â‚¬16 billion between what they are taking in and what their expenditure is, and this figure is getting bigger by the day. Increasing the tax base to take in more revenue from the high rollers will plug some of this gap but the Government have to, have to look at cutting spending and that means cutting back on the public service wage bill. Sure, they can look to exclude those on low pay, say those on below â‚¬40 grand. What they have announced is unfair to that extent. But some pain does need to be felt by the more well paid in the public service. Why? Because the pain is already being felt by those in the private sector. Unemployment is now at 330,000 and those joining the dole queues are not those losing their jobs from public sector jobs. Huge numbers of people working in the private sector are looking at either losing their jobs or taking large pay reductions. I hear nobody suggesting that those private sector employees that are taking this pain are being â€˜blamedâ€™ for the shitstorm we are now in. So why, when it is suggested that some of the pain be shared by public service employees (who, remember, are in secure employment), that yourself and the unions are saying that such employees are being made take the â€˜blameâ€™ for the mess we are in, that they are being â€˜scapegoatedâ€™?

Much play was made on the radio yesterday of a hospital porter who earns a pittance at present and whose pension will be only â‚¬97 per week. Of course someone like that should be exempt from whatever measures the Government takes. But questions need to be asked of David Begg and those in the unions as to how such shitty wage and pension conditions continue to exist after countless national pay deals in which higher civil and public servant were being awarded massive pay increases. Surely it was the job of the unions to insist on better pay conditions for the low paid before agreeing to any pay increases for those further up the scale. Itâ€™s an indictment on the union leaders that such low pay conditions exist in the public service.