Public Sector

Editorial: Unions must accept that public sector pay deal is a two-way street

Whatever the justification for continual pay increases for public employees, taxpayers are entitled to see progress in terms of greater reforms and efficiencies in the sector

The price of peace: Brian Cowen defied his minister for finance, Brian Lenihan, and signed the Croke Park deal in 2010. Picture: Tony O’Shea

In late 2010, the then finance minister Brian Lenihan pulled the plug on the latest round of public sector pay talks amid wholly unreasonable demands from the trade unions.

His decision marked the formal ending of what had been known as the social partnership model, which had been the hallmark of Fianna Fáil’s time in office since 1997.

Amid the financial crash, a period of industrial strife and unrest beckoned until Lenihan’s boss, then Taoiseach ...