Resolving disputes - A lot to play for in the coming days

It must mean something significant, something both worrying and worthwhile, that it has taken five years since our economy collapsed before the gap between government spending and income manifested itself in potentially chaotic public sector/semi-state industrial action.

How the dispute at Bus Éireann and the far greater impasse around Croke Park II will be resolved — and they will be no matter how long it takes — will say even more about our capacity to protect the ideas of social equity and fairness despite the parameters of the times we live in.

Nevertheless, no matter how you twist it, no matter how strongly you might wish it to be otherwise, we cannot afford the public sector pay and pensions bill as it stands. That applies too to semi-state companies more or less permanently dependent, even if for very valid social reasons, on government support. The Government is, like so many middle or lower paid workers, already obliged to make ends meet with reduced incomes, in an unenviable and almost untenable position. Despite that, or because of that, it is increasingly difficult to support or even understand the decision not to ask more of those individuals earning over, say, €100,000, even if only for a specific period. A new rate of tax pitched at higher-level earners won’t make any great difference to the bottom line but it would do something far, far more important — it would show a commitment to fairness and decency that could be a very positive force in resolving the difficulties around Croke Park II and the Bus Éireann dispute.

In the context of the challenge facing the country, last week’s defence by Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton of special tax packages for non-national executives involved in establishing businesses here seems at least inappropriate. These businesses are very welcome but that welcome does not extend to official backhanders at a time when so many workers are facing significant income cuts and a greatly reduced standard of living.

On the other side of the coin, the inevitable threats from unions to stymie reform if pay cuts are imposed are unacceptable. The link between reform and reward must be broken, as it was in the private sector decades ago. This threat has been made vehemently by Liam Doran of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and is one of the obstacles that must be removed from the industrial relations landscape. Reform is an automatic, permanent, and never-ending feature of any successful enterprise, not the dog-eared bargaining chip it has become between Government and its employees.

Over the weekend, conciliatory noises were made from nearly all quarters suggesting that everybody involved understands the magnitude of the issues. Some suggested that savings might be achieved without hitting pay but, unfortunately, that does not seem possible without reducing services already close to the minimum acceptable.

These coming days may be the most significant in our domestic affairs since the night of the infamous bank guarantee, so everybody involved should look beyond their own interests and policies to reach an agreement that will create the conditions for recovery rather than chaos. We simply cannot afford the chaos that would ensue if agreements cannot be reached.