Our two-tier society - It’s time to lance this festering boil

LIKE a First World War soldier, cold and wet, huddled in a stinking trench, dreading the moment that the incessant, creeping barrage pounding enemy lines ends and he will be ordered across fields covered in barbed wire to face scything machine guns, we know we are in a very difficult situation, but fear worse may yet come.

Yesterday’s figures on public sector employment will add to the feeling that things are out of control and that unless some sort of reality is brought into play immediately our situation may indeed get very much worse.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) report that in the year to June 8,600 more people were employed in the public sector. This figure does not take into account any changes in the health services.