Private versus public begrudgery does great damage we can ill afford
I’ve seldom heard such bitterness, accusations being thrown all over the place, people getting hurt and angry as if some major pain or loss was being inflicted.
And the issue under discussion? It was the discovery that a lot of public servants are allowed to avail of two “privilege days” in addition to their holidays. The airways got so heated you’d think a major scandal had been uncovered.
Incidentally — and this is no reflection on his able lieutenant — the radio without Joe Duffy every day is a much reduced amenity.
I know he’s sometimes accused of voyeurism, but the issues Joe has raised over the years, and the way he has handled them, make a unique contribution. Real public service, combined with gripping radio.
Two issues in recent years stand out in my mind — cystic fibrosis and bowel cancer. Joe highlighted both issues through the stories of real people and transformed the public’s perception of how poorly they have been treated by public policy.
As you probably know by now, Joe Duffy had a really nasty accident recently when a car reversed into him, breaking his leg badly. He’s likely to be off the airwaves for some time yet, and he’ll be missed. Get well soon, Joe — the public policy machine needs your scrutiny.
But to get back to the business of privilege days. Every private sector employee who rang into the programme on the subject claimed to feel totally ripped-off by this public sector perk.
The public servants who rang in, on the other hand, all seemed totally defensive — to the point where they couldn’t possibly understand what the others were so het up about.
The issue itself is a minor one. For years — since the “Emergency” of the late 1930s and early 1940s, in fact — when transport was very slow and unreliable, public servants who lived outside Dublin were given an extra day to travel back to work after Christmas and Easter.
Over time these two days effectively became an entitlement, through custom and practice, even though they have always been known as privilege days. When civil servants gets their letter of appointment, their holiday entitlement is set out in the letter, but there is no mention of privilege days.
Of course it’s out of date. Back in the days when privilege days were introduced, women in the public service had to give up work the moment they were married. Even when they were at work, they were paid less than the men alongside whom they worked. Married men in those days (and this wasn’t just confined to the public service) got an extra tax allowance for every child they had. And most government departments employed porters whose sole job was to keep the turf fires going in the offices of the senior civil servants and to clean out the grates every morning.
A lot has changed in the public service since those days — and most of it for the better. And of course there’s no real justification for the privilege days now, except the old “what we have we hold” argument.
But there’s no real justification either for the anger that was demonstrated on the radio — just as there was no justification for the bandwagon-jumping, holier-than- thou statements issued by the Opposition the following day when some of the media decided to follow up on the Liveline controversy.
Fine Gael’s education spokesman Brian Hayes was quoted as saying the Government’s silence on the issue “highlights once again that Fianna Fáil and the Greens have relegated the issue of public sector reform. From next September, our schoolchildren will have 2,000 fewer teachers in front of their classes. With such a bleak scenario unfolding, it is unacceptable that special privilege days should continue for civil servants,” he said.
You’d feel like saying “get over yourself, Brian”.
But the issue of privilege days is basically a sideshow. What it does demonstrate is that there is a real fault-line in the relationship between the public and private sectors in Ireland — at least among those who are employed in both sectors. And it is deeply unhealthy.
I’ve worked all my adult life in the grey area between the public and the private sectors. As someone who has always earned his living in the voluntary sector, I’ve had a lot of experience of both.
In fact, over the years I’ve studied both systems and I’m occasionally asked to speak to one side to enhance their understanding of the other.
When I do talk to either public or private sector managers, I tell them four shocking secrets.
Secret number one is this. There are thousands — yes, thousands — of highly committed, able and efficient public servants in Ireland. They’re worth every penny they’re paid — and very few of them will ever die rich on the salaries we pay them.
And secret number two? There are thousands — yes, thousands — of highly committed, able and efficient people in the private sector in Ireland, too. While at the top they probably have a better chance of dying rich, for the vast majority of them a decent living is the most they can expect.
Secret number three ought not to come as a shock to anyone. In both sectors, there are plugs. People who occupy space to little effect. People who are essentially little more than a burden. The public sector has them, but so too has the private sector — in roughly equal proportions, if my observation over the years is correct.
WE ALL know there’s more job security in the public sector than the private — although that doesn’t actually mean people don’t work under pressure. Is there anyone in the private sector, for example, who works under the same pressure as a fireman?
And it is also a fact, although we may not all accept it as such, that by and large financial rewards are higher in the private sector — although that’s not true for everyone all the time. But the trade-off is a real one — a bit more job security on the one hand, a bit more pay on the other.
But here’s secret number four. We all need each other, in all sorts of ways. The plumber and the librarian, the teacher and the builder, the payroll clerk in the hospital and the admin clerk in the insurance company.
The private sector is built on the proposition that the marketplace is the best way to generate the widest range of choices and opportunities for those with money to spend. The public sector is built on the proposition that there are some things that simply can’t be left to the chance that is a feature of the market. Libraries and fire brigades won’t happen if we have to pay the full going rate.
We all need each other. Now, actually, more than ever. It might suit some people to have the public and private sectors at each other’s throats. But every time society develops a scapegoat based on prejudice, terrible damage is done. And we can’t afford that.
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