Irish government plan £1.8 billion public service budget cutbacks
The Irish government has today confirmed plans to reduce the public service spending budget by £1.8 billion year although discussions with the unions have broken down without an agreement. As a consequence the government has been forced to push ahead with plans to introduce a pension levy on public sector workers and freeze pay increases in the short term. As money becomes tighter for the Irish government this is no doubt a move in the right direction but opens the economy up to potential strikes and other industrial action.
Even though the authorities took the sensible approach of bringing the unions on board at an early stage, this does not appear to have helped the situation and the two parties now seem further apart than ever before. This move by the Irish authorities is in direct conflict with Gordon Brown who has continued to pour billions upon billions of pounds into the public service sector and ignored the growing pension problem to which the Irish government has reacted.
It will be interesting to see if the UK authorities take any notice of this move by the Irish government with opposition parties crying out for a reduction in government spending as national debt continues to plough onwards and upwards.
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