Kyran Fitzgerald: Public sector flexing of muscle is poorly timed

Workers in the public service shouldn’t overestimate what the State can afford, or underestimate how much those in the private sector have suffered, writes Kyran Fitzgerald.

It has come time for a serious national debate on the role of the public service in Irish life.

At a time when the country is facing into a period of intense economic uncertainty, when the foreign investment economic model, that has served us well for decades, is under attack, the response of the leadership of the country’s largest trade union Siptu, with backing from some other unions, has been to press for a rapid acceleration in a process of public pay restoration already underway as part of the Lansdowne Road agreement.