Cuts & Deflation not the Answer, Begg tells Taoiseach
10 Jul 2009
Credit: Kevin Cooper, PhotolineCongress General Secretary David Begg has warned the Taoiseach that there is “only a certain distance” the trade union movement will travel with Government, in terms of its response to the current economic crisis.
Responding to Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s address to BDC ‘09 on Friday morning, Mr Begg said the trade union movement did not believe that savage public spending cuts and wage deflation would allow Ireland to exit the recession.
“No country in history has deflated its way out of a crisis,” he said. Mr Begg described as “disturbing” the proposal made by the IDA’s Barry O’Leary for a 15 percent across the board wage cut. He decribed it as a “nonsensical proposition” and said unions would not sign up for any such deflationary policy.
Mr Cowen had earlier some addressed 800 delegates and observers at BDC 09, his first time to do so. Some protestors raised placards in opposition to education and health cutbacks, but did not disrupt the Taoiseach’s address.
In his wide-ranging response, Mr Begg noted the 150 year sentence recently handed down to US fraudster Bernie Madoff and asked whether the Taoiseach could explore sentences of “even 150 weeks” for those who brought down Ireland’s banking system.
He attacked the ‘cutbacks commentariat’ whose only prescription is to slash public service provision: “Those people must have ice in their veins. In any situation, there must be red lines which you will not cross, such as cutting the minimum wage or social insurance payments, provisions for special needs' children and pensions.
“The measure of the current trade union leadership, the measure of our watch, will be how we maintain these. There is an issue of distributional justice that is best served by a progressive tax system.
“People are genuinely and rightly fearful for their jobs and their homes - and these fears have been expressed here at BDC this week. But most of all, people are fearful of what kind of country we are going to be if we continue to pursue this kind of agenda.”
Mr Begg said the cuts in public service were attacking the wrong target, given that “our problem is not the size of our public service, but the collapse of our tax base.”
He criticised the composition of the so-called Bord Snip Nua and observed: “Nobody on that committee will suffer as a result of the cutbacks they propose.” He said some of the committee had a “long history of antipathy to the public service.”
Mr Begg defended the striking electricians saying they had taken action only at the end of a long process and in defence of their union, following a concerted campaign against accepted industrial relations’ structures by some employers.
He welcomed the publication of new legislation on Agency Workers and urged quick passage of the long-delayed Employment Rights’ Compliance bill. He said its provisions - if they had been enacted when promised - would have addressed some of the key issues in the electricians' dispute and prevented renegade employers dragging the TEEU through the courts.
In conclusion, Mr Begg drew parallels between the situation faced by Mr Cowen and Sean Lemass, when the latter saw his efforts to reform the state’s industrial relations machinery frustrated by an agressive local capitalist class and the heavy hand of the Department of Finance.