Government and media guilty of demonising the public service

THE usual suspects were lined up in recent weeks to condemn public service unions and trot out their public versus private creation in a thinly veiled apologia for those who created our economic mess.

The Government can take comfort from such sycophantic media outlets, led by our national broadcaster, or take stock of the fact that the recent public sector strike is just the latest manifestation of public anger against the direction it has chosen. Pensioners, taxi drivers, farmers, community development groups and private sector workers have all protested on the streets this year.

Are they all to be ignored?

They simply, for differing reasons, refuse to believe the Government is acting in the national interest. The “party first” attitude displayed by the current players by their silence, or by their defence of a long line of cock-and-bull stories told to tribunals in recent years, has created a credibility gulf which they simply cannot see. Perhaps their only real allies are in the media and the array of disguised vested interests they parade in the simplistic presentation of private good and public bad.

Depsite the budget pay cuts, salaries of nurses, gardaí and executive officers will probably once again be tabulated in sensationalist articles which suggest in some way that they are making a revelation.

In fact, all of the information is available in the public domain and is not a secret, unlike the fees charged and paid to the commentators and media celebrities involved in these ‘exposes’. Government may take comfort from such support and the division it sows. But is there a wider impact to this undermining of those on whom we all will ultimately rely at one point or another in our lives?

Those represented in the recent strike action have much in common. They all applied for positions which were advertised publicly and for which every other citizen in this state was equally entitled to apply with similar qualifications. Some of them are required to work when the rest of the community are not required to do so and they are rightly paid allowances and premiums for doing so. All of these people chose careers open to every member of society who possessed the requisite skills or education.

Government, on behalf of the people, made a contract with them for fair reward in return for their willingness to respond to the foreseen and unforeseen in the interests of the wider community.

They are required to provide their services to all in the community without fear or favour, and they do not enjoy the luxury of deciding the merits of one member or group in society against another when it comes to whether or not they will deliver a service. It is said that the pen is mightier than the sword and, if so, then those who use it must be responsible in the words they choose and the targets they identify. The undermining and demonising of public service staff by Government and media may have a long-term damaging effect on levels of respect and esteem with which such workers are held.

Will that lack of respect for staff in public offices, the forces of law and order and those in the caring professions serve any beneficial purpose?

The next time a clerical worker in social welfare is targeted by another self-styled “General”, a prison officer is attacked or intimidated, a garda is mowed down by a stolen car or a paramedic or nurse is spat on or held at knifepoint at the roadside or in an A&E department, perhaps those who engage in vitriol against public servants might pause for thought on their contribution to such dastardly deeds.

More importantly, perhaps the Government will cease its “enemy within” approach and recognise that it cannot act in the national interest by alienating public servants and directing public anger against those on whom we rely to maintain a civilised society.

David Hughes

Deputy General Secretary

Irish Nurses Organisation

The Whitworth Building

North Brunswick Street

Dublin 7