New benchmark

NEGOTIATIONS in the current round of national partnership talks should be plain sailing for a change — particularly in the case of the trade unions’ wage expectations.

Go on lads, strike high. You can afford to be bold this time.

After all, should the other parties to the talks complain of the demands being excessive or unrealistic, then all you have to do is to offer to defer the wage increases for a year.

Surely, in the current political climate, nobody could be so unreasonable as to object to such a sensible and noble compromise?

David Marlborough

Kenilworth Park

Dublin 6W