More public service pay cuts would be lunacy

FOR Dick Keane (Letters, August 28) to equate the billions being poured into Anglo Irish Bank with the wages earned by public service workers shows a shocking level of ignorance.

A combination of multiple pay cuts, suspension of national agreements and unfilled positions has seen the public service pay bill drop by almost €4 billion. It is now clear the Government’s deflationary fiscal strategy of cutting wages and slashing public spending has failed and that without an investment-led approach we face a future of low growth, high debt and high unemployment.

In this context, for Mr Keane to suggest cuts of several billions more in public spending is economic lunacy. Such measures would send the economy into a permanent tailspin. So far the burden of closing the gap in public finances has been shouldered mainly by public service workers and those on social welfare.