After Fine Gael’s cop-out, the public interest is without a public defender

If you are over 50, on a pre-1996 pension, a lower rate of PRSI, a full pension entitlement at 60, and sitting pretty on your increments, then the shafting of new entrants was done for you, by you and you know it, writes Gerard Howlin

SHORTLY after 8pm last Thursday, the leaders of public service unions who signed up to the Lansdowne Road Agreement were shafted. The pay deal, worth €40m to gardaí, was overreached by the Labour Court, concerned to issue a recommendation that would be accepted, and thus reinforce its jurisdiction.

Effectively this means acceptance by the divided Garda Representative Association (GRA). It is a given that the Government doesn’t reject its recommendations, but unions may. As the Luas and Dublin Bus disputes demonstrated, the industrial relations machinery of the State provide a floor, not a ceiling, for what can be had. It’s a slot machine for vested interest. Where the public interest lies is unknown.