Public sector pay - Labour need to come clean on cuts

‘A small reality is this country is bust. There is no shortage of compassion; there is a shortage of money.’

PUBLIC servants must be blue in the face from the incessant demands that they take a pay cut now that the country can no longer afford deals agreed in more carefree times. Yesterday’s reiteration of those calls by economists Colm McCarthy and John FitzGerald – who called for a private sector pay cut as well – will add to the feeling among some in the public sector that they are being singled out for unfair attention.

Mr McCarthy said Government had no choice but to implement “a serious medium-term fiscal adjustment.”

He, like so many others, warned that we cannot continue to borrow 10% of GDP – a crippling €400m a week – to pay our housekeeping bills and that public pay and social welfare rates must be reviewed.

These arguments are strengthened by last week’s exchequer returns, which showed the tax take for the first eight months of this year is €427m behind Government expectations. The Exchequer deficit – the gap between spending and receipts – is €18.7bn.

We have known for well over a year that radical, uncomfortable measures are required. Just last weekend Health Services Executive chief Professor Brendan Drumm warned of extensive cuts in health services unless reform is implemented across the public service.

Despite this all Taoiseach Brian Cowen could offer yesterday’s conference was the pathetic but dangerous deflection: “we’re looking into it”.

As he must know, because everyone else does, the time for “looking into it” has long passed. This is the kind of pathetic inaction that encourages even more cynicism towards political processes and democracy.

Mr Cowen is not alone, however, in using vagueness to fend off reality. Labour leader Eamon Gilmore has said little enough about what his party’s attitude to public pay would be if, as is predicted, Labour is part of the next government.

Indeed, the little he or any of his colleagues have said suggests that their scripts are prepared by public sector unions. Labour’s statements have been disingenuous to say the least, basing their arguments on civil service pay when public sector pay and welfare are the issues.

Labour need to come clean and say what their position would be in Government. If they do not they are sustaining a delusion and encouraging a fantasy – the delusion that higher level public pay might not be cut and the fantasy that Fine Gael might form a single-party government.

Yesterday Mr McCarthy used commendable directness when he said the country “is bust”. Labour – and Fine Gael – must be equally direct on these issues if they are to form the next coalition. We’ve had enough evasion from the incumbent one.