More at stake than the unions’ needs

It is not overstating the case to argue that talks around the possibility of a renewed Croke Park deal are as important to the country’s future as the bank debt deal secured in recent weeks.

If the talks collapse, or are rendered pointless by more unions walking away from the table before the serious business begins, then, for the first time in more than a decade, we face a situation where the Government would be in conflict with at least some of its employees.

That would lead to the kind of instability — not to mention bloody-minded opposition to essential reforms — that would make any meaningful return to economic growth even more problematic. It would also make securing foreign investment — jobs — even more difficult.

However, if unsustainable concessions are made, if public expenditure is not brought much closer to public income, then the debt deal may in time seem like a wasted opportunity. It would be hard to imagine that those in Europe who supported Finance Minister Micheal Noonan’s long, patient game to re-engineer that debt would not wonder if their confidence in us had been misplaced.

That would be doubly unfortunate as just yesterday that confidence was echoed by Citi analysts who said, and what a welcome change this makes, that Ireland’s fiscal prospects seem “better than expected”, and the country could see its rating return to investment grade this year.

Therefore, it is unfortunate, as Justice Minister Alan Shatter and Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan said yesterday, that two Garda associations have already walked away from the Croke Park process. Those withdrawals may seem like assertive, principled trade unionism but, as so many others in so many other spheres have discovered, they don’t change the maths. Eventually hard decisions have to be made even if some of those affected by them choose not to be part of the decision-making process.

It is ironic, too, that by rejecting the process the garda associations join those who, for very, very different reasons, have no faith in central bargaining. They should remember that many moderate people who do not enjoy the protections the deal offers already question the arrangement’s credibility and that by walking away they fuel that doubt.

It is possible to have absolute sympathy with every State employee facing the prospect of a further reduction in income on one issue. Politicians and senior civil and public servants who retired in recent years did so with lump sums and pensions that remain an affront to any idea of social solidarity. When challenged on this ministers invariably inspect their shoes and mutter about being unable to unpick arrangements already made. As tens of thousands of people know to their cost, that’s offensive nonsense. As our politicians well know, unless they confront this issue they lack the moral authority needed to secure an acceptable Croke Park II.

It would be appropriate, too, if the unions involved remembered that their actions, at this fraught moment, have consequences for everyone, not just their members.