Minister should look to his own performance before criticising others

Minister of State for Trade and Commerce John McGuinness should address his own shortcomings before criticising others.

His delivery as a public servant is far from satisfactory even in his own constituency.

Maybe he could tell us how much legislation he has guided through the Dáil or why he has never delivered on commitments to 160 Comerama workers in Kilkenny that they would be included in the improved formula for statutory entitlements when they were made redundant in 2003,

This commitment, which has never been honoured, would have ensured the people concerned would have received two weeks’ pay per year of service, rather than the half-a-week to one week they actually ended up with. Responsibility for delivering on this commitment rests with the minister’s own department. Ironically, while he is calling for thousands of redundancies in the public sector, CT scans at St Luke’s hospital in Kilkenny have been delayed for lack of adequate staff cover and similar problems can be found across the health service.

As for the comfy situation of public sector workers with their inflation-proof pensions, Mr McGuinness seems unaware that there are Coillte and industrial State forestry workers in his own constituency retiring on pensions of €25 a week after 46 years’ service.

As someone who has a very well-paid job as a minister, an inflation-proofed publicly funded pension and an extensive private sector income, Mr McGuinness might just spare a moment for self-reflection on his own comfortable circumstances and performance as a public servant before proceeding to lecture others.

Christy McQuillan

Midlands and South-East

Regional Secretary

SIPTU

18 Patrick Street

Kilkenny