Sorry Sorry Brian

With the bad news about to be unleashed, it’s a good day for gallows humour, so check out Ronan Lyons’s musical tribute to our embattled finance minister (music here). Almost brought me to tears so it did.

16 replies on “Sorry Sorry Brian”

Don’t get this (sorry off topic but ..) (from breakingnews.ie

“They range from a 5% cut on the first €30,000 earned up to a 15% on those earning more than €200,000.

The cuts in public service pay will be as follows:

5% on first €30k of salary

7.5% on next €40,000 of salary

10% on next €55,000 of salary

Higher public servants:

8% to those on €125,000 to €165,000

12% to those €165,000 to €200,000

15% to those earning above €200,000”

He dodged it here – I expected it to be more like 3% on the lower paid and 20% on > 100,000 – this is unfair and a recipe for trouble from the unions

The 5% on the first 30K is on living expenses ,luxury items such as food ,housing etc.

…8% to those on €125,000 to €165,000

12% to those €165,000 to €200,000

15% to those earning above €200,000″…

these higher rates are in the discretionary end of household budgets.

The 5% on 30K means that many at the lower end in the PS will now qualify for supplementary welfare.
This will cause severe industrial unrest in the PS in my opinion.

@ sean o

“The 5% on 30K means that many at the lower end in the PS will now qualify for supplementary welfare.”

Can someone explain to me (seriously) how this would be the case? We’re talking about a cut in pay of €1,500 a year or less. At what stage would most of them be able to avail of social welfare entitlements? How much would they be entitled to?

Ask yourself this: what will this budget cost the head of a bank and what will it cost a nurse on €35,000 per annum?

The bank head pays, essentially, nothing.

The nurse gets a second pay cut of 5% in less than 12 months.

If you think the public sector is going to take this lying down, think again. I was willing to take the pain provided there was at least some gesture to sharing it evenly. Not even a token gesture of this type was made. It’s plain for all to see who is being cosseted and who is being scapegoated.

Eoin:

According to the McCarthy report a couple with two children on social welfare receive over 37,000 euroes tax free exclusive of medical card.
A drop of 30 or 40 euros on job seekers allowance but no change on all the other sw allowances means the overall reduction in sw is negligible.

So a public servant with two children who is working on less than 30k gets a 5% wage reduction on his gross salary .
Many in the public sector will now conclude they are better off on social welfare .
Prior to this budget there were PS workers who qualified and received supplementary sw.
Its likely many more will now qualify .

@ Sean O

i understand your basic point. However i dont think a pay reduction of c. 1,500 will see many move into the social welfare net. There simply seems unlikely to be very many people with such particular overall circumstances to be sitting so close to the threshold. Your post does however once again bring up the issue about the levels that our social welfare system kicks in at.

@ Ernie

“If you think the public sector is going to take this lying down, think again.”

You never answered my point about a sacrifice being a voluntary act, which again this is not. You’d be surprised at how many people in the private sector are almost hoping for public sector industrial action to simply prove a point about the lack of reality currently existing in the public sector workplace.

Perusing the details of the budget I cam across this gem.

”Savings will arise from administrative efficiencies, including foreign service allowances, as well as reduced payments to international organisations and lower spending on emigrant support.
The 2010 Budget Estimates also include provision for an increase in the Overseas Development Aid to 0.52% of GNP.”

So in the middle of a national crisis we borrow 500 million euro a week for current expenditure and increase aid to foreign countries.
Foreign aid should be cut to zero until this crisis has passed.

@Eoin

“We’re talking about a cut in pay of €1,500 a year or less.”

Eoin, for the month of January, why don’t you conduct an experiment where you live on the net monthly income of a single worker on €30,000 p.a.? That’ll put you in a very informed position to assess what such a loss of income might mean.

@ Skepsis

how about for the month of January you re-read my post and use the full and proper context of it? The comment i made was in the context of Sean O’s claim that this would see many PS workers receive supplementary welfare entitlements. My point/question was whether there was really that many of them hovering within €1,500 of such a situation. I thought that was fairly clear in both my original and subsequent posts, but I trust you yourself are now in a more informed position.

@Ernie,

If you are so unhappy with your terms and conditions, why do you not resign and take up a better paid job in the private sector.

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