Wednesday, January 14, 2009

There’s always someone worse off than you are…

I’ve commented in the past about the failure of the Government to understand that, unless you offer competitive salaries, you risk facing difficulties in recruiting and retaining the quality of personnel required to run efficient public services.

The Irish Independent reports that, no matter how bad I might think it is here, things are about to get much worse in Ireland, where the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, is suggesting that, far from receiving scheduled pay increases, it may be necessary to enforce pay cuts on Irish civil servants. Clearly, the Irish Government are not planning to take a Keynesian approach to public spending, although with rumours that the International Monetary Fund are standing by to step in, and the Euro at unprecedented levels against the pound, there is very little room for manoeuvre.

Worse still, for those living near the border with Northern Ireland, the temptation to cross the border to shop is huge, given the exchange rate movements over the past year. A year ago, one euro bought less than 74p. By September, it bought 79p. Now, one euro is worth more than 90p, a 22% increase in just one year.

The economy that was so strong is being undercut by the developing economies of Eastern and central Europe, with the irony of the Irish Government appealing to the European Commission to investigate state aid given by the Polish Government to attract Dell, one of Ireland’s flagship employers, to move production to Lodz, with an immediate loss of 1,900 jobs in Limerick, and another 8,000 at risk according to reports.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be quite so gloomy, after all…

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