Public service surrendering civilised conditions to atone for bankers’ sins

MANY commentators speak of “reform”, “efficiency” and “savings” within the public services, as if these were self-evident pressing needs. The simple ideological preconception underlying this is “public sector bad, private sector good”. Surely the banks’ bailout should give pause.

Besides, the facts relating to the public service are otherwise. The government-commissioned OECD report of 2008, Public Management Review of Ireland, is also full of neo-liberal rhetoric, but is obliged to tabulate data (page15) showing that Ireland in 2005 had the third lowest government expenditure as a percentage of GDP (34%), well below the OECD average (42.7%) and little more than half that of the highest spender, Sweden (56.6%).

The report states (also page 16): “In comparison with other OECD countries, Ireland has thus been able to deliver public services with a public sector that is relatively small, given the size of the economy and labour force. Even when factoring in infrastructure investment, Ireland has the third smallest total public expenditure as a percentage of GDP, and this figure has actually decreased over the past 10 years”. The factual basis for the “pay deal” is spurious, yet it is the basis for the Government and union leaders agreeing to try to make public service employees give up hard-won conditions of employment that define a civilised society (a concept foreign to the neo-liberal agenda) in order to atone for the sins of bankers and builders. What’s an inconvenient fact or two between friends?