Hello

We had a hell of a lot of fire and brimstone from listeners this morning. At least two newspapers had photographs on the front page of traffic jams snaking towards the North yesterday and  public sector workers were accused of using the strike day to go shopping.

It’s an accusation that simply cannot be verified. There will, of course, have been some who used the day to head north, but there were many families who probably made the journey because children were off school or because they are contracted from the private sector to the public sector and couldn’t work yesterday.

Ivan’s theory is that the exodus to the North proves that the public sector is overpaid. He says that our sales taxes are high to pay  the public sector wage bill and those who get salaries from the State are spending it outside the country.

I’m not so sure about pointing the finger at the public sector. Firstly, it achieves nothing. Nor does striking for that matter and the prospect of another day of action is as depressing as today’s weather. But what we in the private sector have to try to understand is that those in the public sector have suffered in this recession too.

Their salaries have been reduced – even if the pension benefit is coming down the line, the amount that these workers get now to pay the bills is less than it was before the pension levy was introduced. Furthermore, the public sector has been the target of intense criticism and pressure to succumb to further cuts for months now. No wonder there is a quasi-war underway.

Those who are on low pay in the public sector have mortgages and bills to pay too and are worried and fearful for the future. This is no different for the people who work for private companies. The private sector has endured pay cuts, commissions have been slashed, bonuses are a thing of the past and for hundreds of thousands of people, a pay cut of 100% and the dole queue has become a new reality.

We were inundated with text messages from both sides yet again today. The bitterness expressed is pointless and gets us nowhere, fast. We need to deal with this national emergency together – reasonably and sensibly and no section of Irish society should be expected to take all the pain while others get away unscathed.

I’d really like to hear your views on the situation.

Claire