There’s a sunny side to the wage-free economy

WE have 6,000 people willing to work for nothing in the Garda Reserve while their full-time colleagues treat them with contempt.

And Justice Minister Michael McDowell will most likely get another 6,000 to volunteer to do the prison officers’ jobs free of charge, too.

Labour will be free and contractors from Eastern Europe can build the new prison in Killsallaghan and the new runway at Dublin airport to go out to Kilsallaghan so that all the prisoners can have a terminal of their own for holidays paid from the money saved minding them.

Neither the gardaí nor the prison officers will need overtime anymore, so the lot of them can go to some hotspot on the old State airline for a well-earned rest. Then the Office of Public Works will only have to look after the Dáil and Farmleigh.

And we can stop all those companies relocating to Asia with the general introduction of slave labour rates here. The net gain to the nation as a whole should be sufficient funding left over to build a university for political prisoners and State consultants to mull over the next mind-boggling cock-up.

Jerry Langton

8 Palmerstown Drive

Palmerstown

Dublin 20