Playing ball on public pay deal

While the Croke Park deal ringfencing public-sector pay has delivered reforms, many feel that cuts to services not covered by the agreement may be too high a price to pay, writes Michael Clifford

POOR Croke Park. The home of the GAA is known around the world as the site of gladiatorial contests, such as that which took place last Sunday. Its history is shackled to the nation through the events of Bloody Sunday in 1920. And it serves as a symbol of the resilience of the GAA, the only national institute to survive the investigations and financial upheavals of recent years.

Yet up and down the country, Croke Park is a term that divides many and generates a considerable amount of abuse. Some use it to illustrate all that is wrong with the country. Others proffer it as an example of what makes Ireland the best boy in the bailout class. For it was within the conference suites that look out on the hallowed turf that the Public Service Agreement 2010-2014 — to be known thereafter as the Croke Park Agreement — was signed in 2010.