Peadar Kirby: The article by Cathal O'Loghlin in today's Irish Times headlined 'Union response to public sector levy fails to find a better way' is more revealing for what it doesn't say than for what it does. Essentially, this former assistant secretary in the Department of Finance and director of the International Monetary Fund (presumably Ireland's representative in the 13-country group through which this country is represented in that organisation) criticises the ICTU's alternative proposals to deal with the current crisis on two grounds, both of them disingenuous.
The first is his claim that ICTU fails to make any case against the planned public pension charges and the second is that the trade union group fails to put forward a comprehensive plan for reforming our taxation system. The first claim overlooks the fact that union leaders consistently affirm that they are not against cuts in public sector pay but that they want to see any cuts being implemented in a fair way with those who have contributed most to the present crisis being the ones who pay the most. Secondly, it beggars belief to expect Congress to design a comprehensive reform of the taxation system when the government itself is failing to do this. Most astonishingly O'Loghlin dismisses ICTU's call for a tax on high earners by stating that the 'net yield might reach €3 billion' while asserting that cuts in the order of €15 billion are in fact needed!
But the most revealing thing of all is O'Loghlin's inability to grasp the essential core principle of ICTU's position, a core principle that finds a ready response among many ordinary Irish people to judge by Saturday's huge march in Dublin. This is the principle of fairness. He fails to mention ICTU's call to introduce a tax on properties other than the principal family residence, its proposal for a 48% tax band for high earners and its call to end the general tax subsidies for the hospital co-location scheme. Indeed, his comment on tax relief for union subscriptions (a petty issue indeed) is perhaps most revealing of a hostility to trade union membership. All in all, his article seems to be motivated by an attempt to argue that public service pay needs to be cut back, missing any of the points made by Paul Sweeney in his recent contribution to this blog. While ICTU's plan may not amount to a full strategy for resolving the huge crisis our political and economic elites have landed us in, it is by far the best beginning towards some equitable and fair way of addressing the crisis.
Prof Peadar Kirby @kirbypeadar
Peadar Kirby is Professor Emeritus of International Politics and Public Policy at the University of Limerick from where he retired in 2012. Before joining UL in 2007, he was Associate Professor in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University. He is a former journalist with The Irish Times and, from 1984-86, was associate editor of Noticias Aliadas in Lima, Peru.
Peadar also holds the positions of adjunct professor in the Centre for Small State Studies in the University of Iceland, adjunct professor in the Network for Power, Politics and Society in Maynooth University, and in the autumn of 2012 he held the UNESCO chair of South-North studies in the University of Valencia, Spain.
He is the author of Celtic Tiger in Collapse: Explaining the Weaknesses of the Irish Model, Power, Dissent and Democracy, and co-author of Towards a Second Republic: Irish Politics after the Celtic Tiger.
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