Sanity is needed - Public pay claims

EVEN in budget week, when many of the claims reaching Government are at best speculative optimism, the news that the HSE could face a bill of up to €700m to compensate hospital consultants over missed pay rises, and that the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors is to demand pay restoration of 16.5%, suggests we have learnt nothing from the hard lessons of the economic collapse.

It also suggests that an unattractive and misplaced sense of entitlement far beyond anything that the public purse could, or should, support is alive and well in this unfortunate, increasingly divided society.

The real, astronomical cost of public sector pensions has been highlighted in recent days. These figures confirm we already live in a two-tier society. Do public workers really think that divide won’t be exacerbated by asking all taxpayers to fund their pay “restoration” — a prospect as remote to most private-sector workers as Apollinaris Mons?

Someone must cry stop. Sanity — and social equity — must prevail.