IT IS a time for cool, deliberate calculation as trade unions meet to consider their responses to the Budget. The sheer scale of retrenchment needed to produce savings of €4 billion in public expenditure, and the sacrifices involved for many people, is now becoming clear. Public sector workers will see their living standards fall. Welfare recipients will be hurt. Services will be cut. Yet strikes and industrial disruption will serve no useful purpose at a time which could be characterised as a national emergency.
Public anger in response to the Budget is understandable and entirely predictable. In spite of that, the Government judged the financial situation to be so diabolical that it chose to antagonise three out of four voters who had opposed social welfare cuts in opinion polls. Then it cut pay. Those judgments may be challenged as being unfair to some groups. They represent hard choices. The Government attempted to limit adverse reaction by exempting old age pensioners and protecting child benefit for low-income families. But - unlike most governments this country has known, particularly Fianna Fáil governments - it finally took the tough and necessary decisions. That determination will see the early passage of welfare changes through the Dáil today.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen has described the Budget as a crucial step on the road to economic recovery. Let us hope he is right. David Begg of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions takes a different view. He rejected the exercise as brutal, without compassion, and he believes the worst is yet to come. At the same time, union officials are meeting to consider their responses to wage cuts and to a suggestion that pension entitlements for their members may change next year. It is an explosive situation.
Despite that, the yawning gap between revenue and expenditure will have to be closed in the coming years. Public costs and productivity cannot be ignored in that exercise. The best way forward is through dialogue and compromise. Government Ministers have praised union officials for their positive approach in the failed talks. However, inviting them to re-engage at this early stage, while their members are demanding confrontation and industrial action, is not useful, especially when the threat of pension reductions and further reforms are in the offing. The dust should be allowed to settle on decisions already taken.
There has been much negative comment about welfare cuts, some of it from deeply committed individuals in the voluntary sector. Others have attempted to hijack a worthy issue. It should not be forgotten that while public sector unions were attempting to substitute 12 unpaid leave days for pay cuts, welfare reductions were fully planned. A cut of €8 a week can make the difference between getting by and going hungry. It will increase pressure on hard-pressed voluntary agencies. Contributions from well-paid individuals in the private sector to those organisations would help in the short term. It is a time for cool reflection on where we are and where we want to be, as a people, as soon as possible.