Sacred cows finally begin to face overdue cull

Are the sounds we heard on Monday and Tuesday those of people who have finally realised that the time to pay the piper has arrived?

Or were they the sounds, as an old colleague used to describe, of the start of the ritualistic raindance that presage any negotiations with union leaders — all for effect with little real meaning?

Given the track record of this and several previous governments, we cannot even hazard a guess. However, we can be certain that the current policy of ‘what we have we hold’ was not, is not, and will not be sustainable.

Pat Rabbitte and a few others are of the view that the media has been unfair to politicians and to ministers in particular. They are concerned about the air of negativity that permeates most comment.

It appears they are of the view that all we have to do is to behave like the three wise monkeys and see, hear, and speak no evil, and all will be well.

Unfortunately those are the very attributes that helped to bring this country to its knees. Surely, most of us will not forget that back in the day, aka the mid-2000s, to speak negatively about the economy was tantamount to treason and a suggestion from on high that we might be better off doing away with ourselves.

Some current comment has been bordering on OTT but, generally speaking, our Government has been allowed to get away with proverbial murder. We would love to be positive. Just give us a reason to be.

The failure to deal with the impact of the Croke Park agreement is an issue which has exercised most commentators and, indeed, most of the non-public sector population.

The fact that the public sector has been protected from the worst of the fallout and that the Government failed abysmally to even consider the agreed mechanisms within the agreement for its re-evaluation has been a thorn in the side of many and, indeed, the source of many a negative comment.

We learned the hard way that Government and union assurances that there were real savings in expenditure and increases in productivity agreed under Benchmarking One and Son of Benchmarking were little more than wishful thinking and spin. We are not convinced that anything of any value is being achieved.

This is not to suggest there are not many within the public sector who are on relatively low pay. It is not to suggest that there are not very many within the public sector who are hard working, diligent, and conscientious. We should not forget that the low paid in the public servant suffer just as badly from Government impositions as anybody else.

The fact remains that we are a country heavily in debt. The fact remains that we must borrow billions each month just to stand still. The fact remains that we must continue to pay billions each year for losses made by professional gamblers, mainly as a direct result of the failure of government, senior public servants, and regulators to do their jobs. There can be no no-go areas, no sacred cows.

Even more importantly we are borrowing these billions from countries where the senior public servants, politicians, government ministers, and hospital consultants are paid considerably lower than ours.

We are a bust economy and our ministers, senior public servants, and many across the top of the private sector wish to be paid as if we are still an unmitigated success. It is not sustainable.

Nobody wishes anybody to be unemployed or see their salaries reduced, but nor do we wish to see taxpayer funds being used for political objectives.

We can only hope that the walls of the Croke Park agreement will be finally breached. Nevertheless holding one’s breath might be dangerous given this Government’s performance to date.

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