FF/FG/Green Government - Part 3

In the grand scheme of whats possible as a country through government policy it is actually comparatively very easy to give our currently very poorly paid junior gardai a significant pay rise.

We have the money, we have the logic/reason to do it, and it would have the voter support.

And logistically its exceptionally easy - the stroke of a pen. Its not exactly building a children's hospital.

If the will was there there are things that could be done.

As I noted above, one useful example I've heard discussed is to give a uniform, across the board, big pay rise for all public employees - but limited to renumeration for night and weekend hours.

That cuts out the vast majority of office based, and senior, civil servants, and would limit the benefit almost exclusively to gardai and emergency/medical staff. And junior staff in those areas, at that - senior management isn't working at 3am on a Tuesday morning. Reducing the cost hugely.

And its also something it wouldn't be difficult to sell to the voters - whos going to object to junior nurses or gardai getting paid more to work horrible overnight shifts?

I literally gave an exact scenario that would target a pay rise to junior gardai (and nurses) while still being approved by the unions on an "all public sector workers" basis a few posts ago, do read up.

Have you actually talked to any gardai currently serving, at any point in the last 5 years? They have huge problems with junior staff hating nightshifts. The lack of staff during the day is an entirely different problem, which is down to us not having enough gardai in general - which is in large part due to the poor wages and anti social shift work.

The idea that teachers wouldn't accept a pay rise for unsociable hours worked by other public servants is based on what exactly? Has any teachers union come out and said this? Or is it just your own pure, uneducated speculation? Do cite some sources.

Prison officers, nurses, caretaking staff etc are all understaffed in Ireland. And are all drastically underpaid. Them benefiting from increased allowances for shift work is a function, not a defect.

The state has an excess of billions of euros a year at present. There is no valid "fiscal headroom" argument when it comes to relatively inexpensive measures, that would dramatically increase the quality of life for all Irish citizens.

The state is also now spending €1bn a year on accomodating (and never mind the additional costs on top of housing) asylum seekers who've never paid a cent of tax in Ireland, and thats increasing rapidly - imagine what that money could do if paid to our emergency services staff instead? The reason its not is down to deliberate government choice.

Peadar Toibin says Aontu would not sopeak to FG about government formation

Simon Harris's response

sex sells, people love a good give away, it ll work to, ffg all the way into the 30's!

Not long ago FF and FG together would have seemed un imaginable

Perhaps, but it’s 2024. Across the ‘big issues’ of housing, tax, economy etc. they are just objectively more closely aligned than they are to SF.

FF voters also overwhelming don’t want SF in government. So FG may not be their ideal scenario, but it’s a lot more palatable than the alternative

theres no real alternatives at the moment, yes this could be a different story in 5 years, but the reality is, no it probably wont be, so its looking very likely we ll have perpetual ffg governments for the foreseeable, as the only government options are ffg or sf. sf would need to obtain an enormous amount of votes in order for them to ever form a government, a near majority, which clearly probably wont ever happen, and ffg are gonna stick to each other like glue, so its looking very likely to be ffg, and for a very long time to…..

sf could easily make a bigger mess of things while remaining in opposition, which means the most likely outcome there is that the opposition becomes a serious mess of all sorts of extremes, making it even easier for ffg to remain to be….

…and dare i say it, thankfully the situation with ffg remaining in government indefinitely, as their blocking technique of confidence and supply prevents these extremes from ever getting into government….