The Last Post

Matt Cooper: A one-size-fits-all public sector pay deal no longer makes sense

Unions are seeking flexibility to address issues affecting specific groups of workers

Paschal Donohoe, public expenditure minister, and Kevin Callinan, president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, are jousting publicly about a new public sector pay deal

Pay deals involving the government always get done eventually. This should be remembered as the posturing by ministers and unions intensifies over the coming weeks about a new public sector pay deal and we get breathless statements about the potential for “failure”.

Much will be made about the lack of time available, with just six weeks left to the end of the year in the hunt for a successor to the ‘Building Momentum’ agreement which ...