Government bottled it on allowances

In last week's paper, we argued that the Croke Park agreement was not delivering and needed to be scrapped. The past week bore out our position. The extraordinary climbdown over the allowances paid to public servants - for fear that the powerful public sector unions might revolt - is a slap in the face to ordinary taxpayers.

It is now increasingly clear that the agreement is protecting those already 'inside' the system; new ...