Paying the price of union demands

When one joins a club and becomes a member one has to abide by the club’s rules and in some situations adjust one’s lifestyle to comply.

When Ireland joined the EU, our Government thought it had been given the keys to the EU cash vault and later on when they rushed in to accept the euro as the common currency among EU members, our Government failed to realise that unless we further adjusted our lifestyle and way of working we were heading for the disaster of being uncompetitive in the foreign markets.

The workers in each of the euro-using countries were being paid in the same currency but the hourly rates of pay differed widely from ours, and allowing that the workers of each country took the same number of man hours to produce an object or item, that item being produced by the country with the highest hourly rate would be the most expensive and least competitive on the market.

Our trade unions continued to demand higher rates of pay and our beloved Government failed to comprehend and the foreign investors and factory owners began to take up their beds and walk, hence all our lovely industrial buildings standing idle.

Until we, our Government, our trade unions and public sector staff realise the fallacy and stupidity of paying ourselves more than that of our competitors, recovery will be a long time coming. Until we can prove to would-be investors that we can keep unit costs on par or lower than those of our rivals, we stand no chance of getting those silent factories humming again and that will never happen until the Croke Park millstone is lifted from it.

We have inherited a huge unpaid bill for our “good times” during the Ahern and Cowen era and now it is overdue payback time. It will be like running a half marathon once a month for the next 10 years and carrying Brian Cowen and Bertie Ahern on one’s back on alternate months. We have been contaminated with corruption and greed and ignorance for too long. Why were we so gullible not to realise the fragility of the sustainability of the Bertie boom and the consequences of a collapse?

You may be the victims of greedy and clueless union booms who probably thought that the Irish lifestyle that they had created would be an example to the rest of the world.

You may be the victims of an inept and irresponsible Government and of your own stupidity but either way, you and you alone are now paying for it and let it be a lesson to one and all.

Richard Prendergast

Rathcormac

Co Cork