Govt ‘failure to act in common good’ leads to strike threats

John Reid

Threatened industrial action by public sector workers is a result of the Government’s inability to make decisions based on the common good, a leading economist has warned.

Prof. Ray Kinsella told The Irish Catholic that politicians need to “finally stop making policy based on political expediency, taking account only of the needs of individual parts of society, but instead to take a view of the whole of society”.

Prof. Kinsella was speaking amidst growing disquiet that the economic recovery – already threatened by external factors like Britain’s decision to leave the European Union (EU) – could be put in jeopardy by demands for pay increases by a growing number of unions representing public sector workers.

Concerns

Prof. Kinsella reiterated the need to address legitimate concerns of groups like Gardaí and teachers whom he describes as victims of the “dark legacy of austerity”. 

However, he warned that in the absence of the Government being guided by “robust and holistic principles based on the common good”, in the process of catching-up “the strongest and most-organised sets of workers will win out simply because they are stronger compared with others that don’t have that kind of leverage,” he said.