Sir, - I am writing to express my shock at the hostile attitude to public sector workers displayed by Des Geraghty, vice-president of SIPTU, at the ICTU special conference.
He is reported as saying that "we are not doing it in the public sector", and that he is not surprised that someone who is two years out of the education system can earn more in the computer industry than his lecturer. This, seemingly, is the basis for his hostility to teachers, among other public sector workers, who will pursue pay claims similar to the one successfully pursued by the nurses.
Des Geraghty's adoration of the private sector, and his dismissive attitude to workers in the public sector, seems strange coming from someone who for most of his political life was a member of a party, the Workers' Party, which called for the State to be the engine of economic growth and admired the State-controlled, centrally planned economy of the Soviet Union. He says that the development of the economy in the private sector is leading the world.
Surely the key point about our economic growth in the past 30 years is that it is due to a combination of State planning and investment, particularly in education and the science and technology area, and large-scale private investment in advanced modern industry. If it were not for the enormous effort of people in the education field, at every level, and especially in such places as Limerick University and DCU, to name but two, Ireland would not have produced the modern workforce capable of working in the successful private industries which have underpinned our economic success.
The type of attitude adopted by Des Geraghty can serve only to pit private sector worker against public sector worker, and lead to greater division within the trade union movement. To regard private sector workers as in some way superior to public sector workers is to ignore the fact that both sets of workers have contributed to economic success, and both depend on each other. Successful private industry requires workers who are well educated, healthy, and live in an orderly society regulated by law. Services such as education, health and law enforcement are largely provided by public service workers, in such professions as teaching, medicine, and policing. Surely all workers, both private and public, should share the returns generated by our recent economic growth?
One final point. I see that Des Geraghty is a member of the RTE Authority. Can one assume that he regards this area of the public sector as "not doing it", to use his words, and will he now call for the privatisation of RTE? - Yours, etc.,
Fintan Cronin, Tivoli Road, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.