Madam, – On September 10th the CSO published its Earnings and Labour Costs report for Q1 2010. It shows 1,145,100 private sector workers earning an average of €614 per week (€31,928 per annum) and 406,500 public sector employees earning an average of €882 per week (€45,864 per annum). Can anyone explain to me why the people who earn 44 per cent more than the private sector have gilt-edged pensions and conditions are guaranteed that these will not be touched over the next four years? This is insanity.
Were public sector workers paid at the same rate as the private sector the public service pay bill would be reduced by €5.7 billion per annum. – Yours, etc,