Public sector pay report: Our society is dangerously divided

FOR generations this society, the more polite tiers of it anyway, avoided conflict by dodging red-button issues. 

In-laws or neighbours might not mention de Valera or Collins, Ring or Rackard, Charlie or Garret. The sexual adventures of sainted churchmen or handsome Irish-Americans in the White House were off-limits too. Decorum prevailed. Conflict was avoided but progress was long-fingered. One of today’s let’s-move-along-quickly subjects is public sector pay or, more specifically, the gap between public sector pay and private sector pay. There is no common ground, your background defines your unshakeable position.

A report by stockbrokers Davy that shows public sector workers, on average, enjoy a 40% advantage over their private sector peers puts the issue back on the public agenda — or, at least, it should. That public sector pensions or job security were not considered by the report’s authors frames the issue in even more spectacularly divisive terms.