It doesn't matter who is sitting around the table. Our political structure will always give us weak government.You may be depressed at the state of debate in the country .... a floating voter, I am more concerned at the quality of debate around the cabinet table. Vision, leadership and a bit of bottle to make some politically difficult decisions all look thin on the ground. I get nervous when I see a number of the faces in that illustrious group.
It doesn't matter who is sitting around the table. Our political structure will always give us weak government.
Good constructive stuff. Tell that to the teachers nurses guards doctors ambulence drivers etc etc etc.
Let me be constructive, the teachers get paid for the 3 months or so summer break, then get paid additional moneys for marking and supervising exams, why dont they do it as per of their normal salary? There are loads of constructive things the public sector can do, but it may mean they have to contrabute more for less. How lightly is that to happen?
In the hospitals, get rid of the care aisistants and get the nurses to feed the patients and make the beds, they do it that way in most other european countries and make all the middle management work not just supervise.
Joejoe
I never read so much cliched old fashioned outmoded nonsense in my life; the only thing missing was not calling him ' Comrade joejoe'. Public sector jobs are by and large for the greedy and the lazy, not the enlightened. They are exclusive. Not everyone can be lucky enough to get one. Imagine what would happen if everyone in the country worked for the public sector. The country would be decimated. We are not going to establish a socialist utopia with everyone having a fantastic job with fantastic pay, fantastic 3 month holidays plus fantastic wages and conditions as a small country going alone.
The reality is we are in competition with places like Singapore, Hong Kong, Israel etc for investment. Our public service needs to be competitive with the public services of other countries. End of story. Wake up. I find the entitlement mentality in the public sector to be disgusting. Why should someone in the public sector be entitled to any more than someone else with a family to feed in the private sector. Wheres the equality and brotherhood/sisterhood there ? I suspect its more a case of 'im allright jack' plus some convenient narrow minded self protecting self biased views.
I never read so much cliched old fashioned outmoded nonsense in my life; the only thing missing was not calling him ' Comrade joejoe'.
Public sector jobs are by and large for the greedy and the lazy, not the enlightened. They are exclusive. Not everyone can be lucky enough to get one. Imagine what would happen if everyone in the country worked for the public sector.
The country would be decimated. We are not going to establish a socialist utopia with everyone having a fantastic job with fantastic pay, fantastic 3 month holidays plus fantastic wages and conditions as a small country going alone..
The reality is we are in competition with places like Singapore, Hong Kong, Israel etc for investment. Our public service needs to be competitive with the public services of other countries.
End of story. Wake up. .
I find the entitlement mentality in the public sector to be disgusting. Why should someone in the public sector be entitled to any more than someone else with a family to feed in the private sector. Wheres the equality and brotherhood/sisterhood there ? I suspect its more a case of 'im allright jack' plus some convenient narrow minded self protecting self biased views.
Direct your anger at getting united with your public sector collegue to fifght for decent pay and conditions for all workers.
The notion that we can tax "fat cat bosses" and continue to trundle along our merry way without any pain highlights the kind of trouble we're in. During the high taxation era of Haugheynomics we witnessed large scale tax evasion, high unemployment, mass emmigration and near bankruptcy. The last thing we want now is extra taxes.
When it comes to government spending, the government should mandate a 15% cut in spending for each department. Let the top brass in each department decide how they want to do it - cut pay, lay off staff, cut non-essential services.
I worked for a firm that had to cut spending during the dot com collapse. The manager let go some of the more unproductive staff (some because they were new and lacked experience, others because they were lazy) and gave everyone remaining a ten percent pay rise to acknowledge that they now had a greater workload. If I remember correctly, things seemed to run smoother afterwards as some of the more "difficult" or "sensitive" staff members were let go. No harm to cut some deadwood every now and again.Thats what mindless speculation does.
Public sector should be no different in this regard. Anyone engaging in a wildcat strike should be fired. If the unions don't like it they should be told in a no uncertain terms that they can accept the pain now, or expect to have the job functions of their members permanently privatised.
So let business mindlessly exploit workers at the drop of a hat. Thats your solution? if you dont like being exploited and treated like dirt you know where the door is. That is the type of community you want your children living in?? Scary
That said, it is not simply a matter of cutting the public sector wage bill and away we go Celtic Tiger Part Deux. The problems in the Irish economy run a lot deeper than that.
Aggreed but people on here are falling for the IBEC spin. I hope I am talking to proper business people here and not just poor brainwashed smucks working for soemone else. I can handle business owners advocating exploitation and crap conditions, but ordinary workers, it saddens me.
Sorry television but this is nothing but Joe Higgins fantasy-land nonsense.
By way of example, a close friend works in the manufacturing industry on not much above minimum wage (yes, we still have a few factories left!). This factory is tottering on the brink of closure. A few months ago it moved to only opening three days a week, after a period of which it shut for two weeks. Then the owner switched his product supply line slightly and things have improved. However, it is a difficult game - accepting orders but not wishing to risk having much capital tied up in inventory. Since their suppliers are in the same position the factory is practically working to order. Most of the staff believe it is only a matter of time before the factory will close. It's not possible for the staff to accept much of a wage cut (since it would be illegal) although I believe most of them are working extra "unclocked" hours when the orders/supplies come in.
Now tell me how your comrades and these workers can unite to fight for "decent pay and conditions for all workers"?
Same kind of arguments were made during the industrial revolution as a means of exploiting workers. It required unity but eventually workers accross europe rallied and forced governments to improve workers conditions. You are not looking at this in a global context. Further exploitation will continue unless workers unite globally. I am not talking about a socialist Eutopia, just decent pay and condtions for people of all sectors
…and those rights were enshrined in law and the “class war” as it was, was won. The only group that didn’t realise this were the unions.Same kind of arguments were made during the industrial revolution as a means of exploiting workers. It required unity but eventually workers accross europe rallied and forced governments to improve workers conditions.
Here’s an example; A good living wage in China is (say) €1 a day. This is enough to pay the bills, put the kids though school and put food on the table. In Ireland €10 an hour provides a lower standard of living in real terms. So will you, as a socialist, buy goods produced by the guy in Ireland for twenty times the price of the goods produced by the guy in China? Will you spend €2000 on the kids toys at Christmas (and will you ask everyone else to do the same)? If not then you may begin to understand how international trade and commerce works because at the moment it seems that you have no idea.You are not looking at this in a global context. Further exploitation will continue unless workers unite globally. I am not talking about a socialist Eutopia, just decent pay and condtions for people of all sectors
when the words pay freezes are put around by the media does that mean a real pay freeze and no increments this year or does it mean that the PS will still get their increments but no new benchmarking
Same kind of arguments were made during the industrial revolution as a means of exploiting workers. It required unity but eventually workers accross europe rallied and forced governments to improve workers conditions. You are not looking at this in a global context. Further exploitation will continue unless workers unite globally. I am not talking about a socialist Eutopia, just decent pay and condtions for people of all sectors
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