Sir, – Pat Leahy writes that the "arrangements for public servants – a pension after full service of 50 per cent of final salary with a lump sum of 150 per cent when they retire – are unavailable and (for most employers) unfundable in the private sector" ("Garda pay report undermines case for public sector wage increases", Analysis, December 13th). This pension has also been unavailable to public servants recruited from 2013; annual pensions are now based on career-average earnings.
Jim O'Leary writes that "talk of restoring pay to pre-crisis levels, as if this were an entitlement created by the ending of the crisis, rather misses the point" ("Restoring public sector pay cuts remains unsustainable", Opinion & Analysis, December 13th). Indeed it is not the point at all; the case for restoration is based on the employment contracts between Government and its staff, whose pay provisions have been temporarily suspended because of the financial crisis and enabled through financial emergency measures in the public interest (Fempi) legislation.
The Government itself recognises this reality and has both renewed Fempi annually and changed new employment contacts to allow downward revisions in salary scales in the future.
Is The Irish Times suggesting that the Public Sector Pay Commission should tear up the employment contracts of existing public servants and introduce lower pay scales and pensions? It would be a major precedent.
Respect for contract law was the reason cited for Government inaction on upward-only rent reviews which crippled Irish small businesses during the financial crash. Is it not the same law for everyone? – Yours, etc,
DONAL McGRATH,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – "Pay rates for senior public sector staff a real disincentive" to recruitment, according to a confidential submission to the Public Service Pay Commission (December 13th, 2016).
Not surprisingly, the submission is made by those who would most benefit from pay increases at the level indicated, to a commission also made up of those who would benefit from such increases, if the recommendation is implemented as a result of a vote by politicians, who would also benefit from its implementation. – Yours, etc,
ADRIAN J ENGLISH,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin.