Private sector workers go down with sinking ship

RECENTLY, I have noted that our ship of state is now often being compared to the ill-fated RMS Titanic.

With this in mind, let me follow up on the analogy. We have had somebody declare her “unsinkable” as in the “boom has just got boomier”. Whatever happened to the man who said that? Are we following the “Birkenhead Drill“ of women and children first?

It’s first class passengers first into under-utilised lifeboats — ie, the politicians, senior civil servants, and the senior bankers. Second-class passengers are the civil servants and public service workers. I draw a distinction between civil servants and public service workers; normally the public service workers are skilled and competent like nurses and gardaí.

Third-class passengers are those on welfare trying to make a better life for themselves (as is their right). But we seem to be lacking one part of our society in this analogy. The people who kept the lights on, the pumps running until the very final moments, of which, very few survived. Those onboard the doomed vessel were the engine room staff. The ones who had to stoke the boilers to provide all the sources of services to those listed above.

In this analogy, they are the private sector workers. Will these people be allowed to leave their stations now that the master has declared “abandon ship”? I doubt it. Their life jackets have been taken away already. All the budget did is to further lock doors in the alleyways to their escape routes.

Brian Maguire

Churchtown

Dublin 14