Timing of raises raising eyebrows

THE Government is expected to announce tomorrow that the double payment given to social welfare recipients at Christmas in recent years will be paid again this year.

This is not withstanding the stringent expenditure cutbacks being planned elsewhere.

Everybody should welcome this announcement. The necessary budget cuts should not be made at the expense of those already among the most disadvantaged in our society.

This coming week is likely to be crucial to the campaigns both for and against the Nice Treaty, on which the people of this country will vote on Saturday week. Questions inevitably will be asked about the timing of the Christmas bonus announcement.

It will be made little more than a week before the Irish people vote on the Nice Treaty.

And the official announcement will be made in little over a week after the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, and other members of the Government and the Oireachtas were accorded pay increases in line with the National Wage Agreement, designed to promote the Partnership for Prosperity and Fairness.

The Taoiseach has been awarded slightly over 8,000 a year extra to bring his salary to 209,885. The Tánaiste will get 179,901 in salary during the coming year. The salaries of various other ministers have jumped to 164,910 from 158,567 in the past week. Members of the Oireachtas got comparatively similar salary increases, so there is not likely to be any real complaining on this issue from the backbenches on either side of the floor.

Of course it should be stressed the salary increases are part of a 4% raise accorded to public sector workers across the spectrum. This system was designed to take politics out of the salary issue by linking the salaries of politicians to the rest of the public service.

The forthcoming Christmas bonus announcement may well be timed to placate public disquiet over the recent salary increases.

The essence of good leadership is to provide good example. Some commentators have, in recent days, complained about an element of drift in which nobody appears to be in control of the Government. Society can hardly be expected to take seriously the Government’s commitment to cost-cutting when the same politicians allow public expenditure on their own salaries to increase. To that extent salary increases, coming at this time, raise a serious issue.

The government will be taking some of the heat out of that issue by announcing the Christmas bonus for welfare recipients. In as much as it is deserved, the announcement should be welcomed, especially if it eases some of the anxiety of the needy. Of course, it should not be allowed to obscure the poor example given in other instances, but neither should any of this become embroiled in the issues surrounding the Nice referendum.

None of it has anything to do with the real issues of the referendum campaign.

The call by certain elements to punish the Government by defeating the Nice Treaty is spurious and has no more merit than suggesting people should endorse the treaty because the Government will be according them a Christmas bonus.