Freezing public worker increments a small sacrifice we desperately need

I HAVE a suggestion to make. It won’t be very popular, and won’t win too many friends. But it’s essential that we do something that can make a real difference.

And this will. In its mid-term review published the other day, the Government said that it intended to narrow the gap between what we take in every year and what we spend by €3.8 billion. That’s a staggering figure — and of course, it’s only the first of the next four budgets that are going to see monstrous clawbacks. They have made it clear that next year, the figure of €3.8bn is going to be reached in four different ways. There will be a €750m reduction in capital expenditure, added to €1bn in new taxes (that’s the house tax and a couple of other unwelcome things), and €600m from the carry forward effect of some of the newer taxes (the universal social charge, for instance).

That still leaves €1.45bn to be found. And all of that is going to be cut from public expenditure. As far as we know, the government is still trying to figure out how to make that huge cut. They have pretty well let it be known that the bulk of it is going to come from health and social protection. The situation is further complicated by the fact that the health service is already struggling to deal with over-spending in several areas – principally in the larger hospitals. So in real terms, the cuts could be larger than €1.45bn.