Right now, the answer to our economic meltdown looks simple and clear. We'll have (read Brian Lenihan's lips) no more tax increases. We'll just have cuts in the public service.
If that makes you feel good, you're missing the point. Or several points. The first point is that if you cut public services, you cut jobs.
Right now, hardly a family in Ireland doesn't have a member who's lost their job in the most unexpected way. Architects, accountants and lawyers have all found themselves in the dole queues.
Cuts in public services could mean those queues lengthen. In theory, people working in the public service are permanent and pensionable. In theory. In reality, many services have been outsourced in recent years, with people have been taken on within the public service on terms other than permanent and pensionable.
Siptu faces the battle of its life over the next couple of months to prevent the pay cuts and job losses that would follow public service cutbacks.
Read the full text here: http://www.herald.ie/opinion/why-siptus-facing-its-biggest-ever-battle-1905293.html
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