Madam, – Noel Whelan (Opinion, October 3rd) has joined the cheerleaders demanding further pay cuts from public sector workers. On the one hand it is hard to take Mr Whelan BL seriously as he is in a privileged profession which is able to demand extraordinary fees for representing clients in court. I am not aware barristers have reduced their fees in any way.
Furthermore, I don’t recall Mr Whelan ever calling for a reduction in the fees paid to his barrister colleagues during the tribunal gravy trains. Mr Whelan is in the enviable position that he can supplement his legal earnings with his media work.
Nevertheless his comments need to be challenged. Public sector workers have endured an unrelenting propaganda campaign this year: based on dubious data, with the intention of deflecting public attention and diverting scarce resources while simultaneously dehumanising the target of its ire.
Public servants are not a self-serving faceless entity as the propagandists would have you believe. We are real people, living in real communities, trying to raise real families and meet real commitments on modest salaries. Yes, there are a few public servants on salaries comparable to Mr Whelan’s; but not the vast majority of us. Yet, this year, those of us on these modest salaries have had a pay cut of over 10 per cent. That has caused real pain.
It would be welcome if Mr Whelan – and others like him – vigorously demanded that those at the top would bear the same pain that those in both the public and private sector have endured, rather than demanding that more be inflicted on those at lower social strata.
But do the privileged turn on themselves? – Yours, etc,