I think the guards and all of the frontline workers do a great job and the government should be protecting such essential services.

If we’re to abandon cuts in the Justice Department then cuts can only fall elsewhere on Health, Education, Social Welfare or another government department. Unless we want to raise more taxes and I know none of us are in favour of that.

@david

There was a 90+ million overspend in social welfare last year. Your government are trying to take 60 million from frontline workers this year. Do the maths.

I hope the government stands-up to the unions. The majority of the public support cuts to spending. Otherwise, it’s higher taxes.

Speak for yourself David. I’m hugely in favour of raising taxes for the high earners. That’s what’s really wrong with this country. Someone on €200,000 per year is paying the same rate of tax as someone on a fifth of that is criminal, and only goes to show what this government stand for.

Do people not understand that putting this PRIVATE bank debt unto the people is illegal and we don’t have to pay for it??? Iceland proved this through the courts. Michael Noonan even admits here that it’s illegal. I’ll pay my own debt but I’m not paying anyone eles’s. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x59Ksq0A6o

your right. dead right why are we as a people paying for the stupidity of banks and lenders. Any other country outside the eurozone would lets banks go belly up and comeout the other side doing well. As you said Iceland is the perfect example

While their marginal tax rates are the same at ~50% (which I’d say is high enough), the effective tax rate is higher for the person earning €200k vs someone earning €40k. Also their total tax bill will be significantly higher.

The problem David is that taxes are set to increase because property tax and water charges are in effect a tax on employment – just a different name. These taxes are extremely dangerous because they target people who spend into a pillar economy (the local economy). Cutting spending should be the prime focus so that we can become a low-tax low-spend economy.

I realize cuts are sensitive but people would support them if for example you introduced a wealth tax to coincide with cuts (this would reassure many).

And they’re well-paid.

Regonald I see you follow Gerry Adams and Fr Sean Healy on Twitter….just a wild guess here but i’d say your a wanna be provo but, seeing as you have probably lived on welfare all your life and scrounged off decent hard working people, you are too lazy to actually do anything but be a keyboard warrior.

BTW if your welfare payments enable you to pay for internat access then you are being given too much money.

@regonald

You’re definitely the most repetitive troller on this site. How do you find the time to leave the same type of comment on almost every article?

The civil service pay needs to be cut in line any other Eurozone country. In Greece, Teachers earn about €155 a week. In Ireland, it’s at least double (if not more) than Greece despite similarities in the crisis. Too much money, unsustainable.

You really are a toss pot, you have not got an idea what your spoofing about,

The public sector pay levels are financially in deficit. Where do you think the money will come from? The majority of the public support cuts to public sector spending. Otherwise, it’s higher taxes.

What “pay cuts” were already imposed? Let’s examine your definition:

14% cut to Irish public sector pay (compared to 60% in Greece and 30% in Latvia)

Now I’m pissed…..

Regonald…1. why does a 14% pay cut not qualify as a pay cut? what % would qualify as a pay cut? and what % would qualify as a pay cut without the quotation marks? You should go back to school/college and ask for a refund if you can’t grasp that a reduction in pay (by any amount) is a pay cut.
2. All public sector workers have had cuts of approx 25-30% taking into account pension levy and cut to basic pay rates.

You must be pissed considering your complete lack of locig.

logic

Oh yea, Regonald, Greece and Latvia is exactly who we should be comparing ourselves against. What percentage of Greece and Latvia pay the taxes we do. You’ll find very very little.

Similar bankrupt slaves to the EU and under similar programs.

In Latvia, civil service pay was cut by 30% and this had a famous success which was widely praised globally.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/world/europe/used-to-hardship-latvia-accepts-austerity-and-its-pain-eases.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

By comparison, supt’s wages wouldn’t make a drop in the ocean compared to the amount spent on ordinary public sector pay.

Hmmm i’m not sure if you notice…but that wasn’t exactly meant to be a comment that could stand up to a critique

The vast majority of the public are behind them . I hope they put if up to shatter / callinan etc . Seems the government don’t give a damn about their frontline workers

It’s fair to say the government doesn’t give a damn about any Irish citizens.

Bankers/bondholders/big business and Europe is all that matters to Enda and co. That much is clear to see!

Fair play to an Garda. I’m right behind them 100%

Why aren’t the whole public service taking action? I mean if things are as bad as they’d have us believe, they’d have all walked out by now. What are they frightened of?

Sure how could anyone have confidence in a man who in the first 16 months of his position, shit down over 30 Army & Garda Barracks’s – Out!

Because frontline pay is being sacrificed for the rest of the wider service… Cut Gardai, nurses, emts, firemen, prison officer’s, defence forces but not the 9 to 5 desk jockeys

We should all do the same!

They dont WANT to walk out they will if they have to.

The country cannot afford the current civil service wage bill. Reforms are needed.

Yeah, they are moving to the private sector AFTER retirement at the ridiculous young age of 50 or 51 with guaranteed pensions and young/healthy enough to work in the private sector for many years. You Gardai have a good deal much better than those who have lost their jobs in the last few years and others who have no certainty in their futures. So I suggest you and your ilk shut up and stop moaning. No gardai is leaving pre retirement to work in the private sector bar a feww young ones early 20′s who decided it wasn’t for them

Gardaí can retire after 30 years service. In the vast majority of cases that’s 30 years of a three-relief system that saw them working all around the clock and for seven days straight at least once every month. That’s 30 years of missing weekends & public holidays, including Christmas, on a regular basis because of work. It’s a good pension, but it’s hard-earned. When a Garda, Prison Officer or other frontline worker comes on here and talks about the regular abuse, assaults & traumatic incidents they encounter there’s nearly always some detractors saying ‘you knew that going into the job’; that’s true but they also knew there was a pension at the end of it. If the pay & conditions get watered down any further, anyone who’s in a position to go elsewhere will do so; I know a good few who have applied for the Western Australian police & two who’ve already gone. It’s also worth pointing out that anyone working on past their 30, and there’s many, still pay pension contributions but do not see any greater benefit, there’s also no entitlement to the state old age pension either.

@Miller, the Gardaí leaving their posts to the private sector are not all retirees as you suggest and not necessarily all leaving on pension either. There are many leaving to far more lucrative contracts in the private sector before they reach retirement. But on the point of those more senior Gardaí retiring from the force to take up private work. The force, as reported widely, has lost some of the most experienced and seasoned investigators and police minds in recent years. They retired prematurely from the force due to the conditions they found themselves in and as a result of the continued Govt. attack on pay and conditions. Now imagine for one moment a private sector company loosing its most experienced managers/staff at once, it would undoubtedly cause a serious blow to any business. The Gardaí are no different. Furthermore, several other police forces, Australian and Canadian, are actively pursuing Gardaí of 3-7 years service to join their ranks, with the offer of very attractive remuneration packages, such is the high esteem in which they hold well trained Gardaí. These people do not want to leave, but will if pushed further. Gardaí are well aware of the difficulties faced by private sector workers and their families who have sadly lost employment, but this should not be used as a stick to beat Gardaí who are entitled to fight for their own terms and conditions. The Govt. has rather cynically created a public/private sector divide to deflect from their own inabilities.

You realize the majority of Irish people support these cuts?

Regonald..where is your proof of this majority support for these cuts

Take no notice of regonald, he’s a troller with many identities.

He’s nothing but a troll.
He tries to troll comments as a right wing, tea party, let’s cut all government spending, cut big government type poster.
Yet, his twitter account (according to others, I wouldn’t be arsed looking) follows all the left wing politicians. Not to mention him calling the protesters in Tallaght, his ‘Brothers’.
If he’s for real, he hasn’t a clue which side of the political compass he wants to be on. He’s a cross between a PD and a ULA.
No one should reply to him. Just ignore.

Allowances are being reformed and supporters are moaning and groaning. It’s not a one-way street. The country is in debt and the public sector wage bill is unsustainable.

Today’s Journal Poll reveals a majority are opposed to that. Now stop living in a fantasy world.

Opposed to what Reg?

It would be the best scenario to have the GRA at the talks table. But kenny has issues a statement saying basically if the proposed cuts arnt achieved, the govt will legislate to bring in the cuts necessary… Talk about having a gun put to your head!

Graham the GRA is not a union and has no voice or seat at the table with the other larger unions at the negotiations table.
The proposed cuts put forward by government aimed to cut pay and allowances for all gardai below the rank of Superintendent, while keeping the politically appointed ranks (superintendent and upwards) protected. Any pay cuts are unacceptable but pay cuts that target the lower paid while protecting the higher paid are disgusting.

The GRA were never “at the table” they were invited to witness talks as far as I know and decided to leave even that when told we’d be taking these cuts or they’d be legislated for.

This government doesn’t want a negotiation, they want loyal little lap dogs to sit and take the pain and we can’t afford to take anymore pain.

Actually it was used to intern German prisoners of war they were held in the front yard of the then barracks behind barbed wire fences.

Do you have documented evidence of this or is it just the old ‘someone I know’ chestnut? Otherwise its called hearsay my friend. Did the people you allegedly ‘know’ make a formal complaint through the Garda Complaints board or Ombudsman? Anyone can say anything, it doesn’t make it so.

JACK ASS i was in their company when they were in ODCE the first time and we were looked at like we were criminals from the individuals who were there ,the second time i was not there so i can only go with what i was told ,one of these individuals said to these men what do you expect us to do and his responce was your job, now i know a good deal of the back ground to this case and i cannot mention names or things that happened but i will mention one of them is in the anglo bunker ,also this is my opinion ODCE fraud squad regulators and inland revenue the judiciary and its foot soldiers the media plus the goverment are all working to keep the truth from the people as to the level of criminal activity that took place in ANGLO IRISH this in my opinion is the level of the grip organised white collar crime has in this country ,also with nobody in jail and no bank investigation in to our banking collapse , if they truth ever manages to get out with what took place in that bank and to think it will cost the people 60 billion they will be plenty of work in the constuction sector building prisons.

Dermot. The Garda take instruction from the DPP. If he says no, they only waste time investigating. So of you want to blame someone blame the Attorney General.

@Dermot Purcell. Dermot, with every respect to you, are you that naive? Do you really and truly believe that? Talk to your TD will you and raise that issue. The problem with white collar crime is that there is utterly insufficient legislation with which to deal with such crime and our justice system is such that trying to prosecute such crimes is fraught with a minefield legal loopholes. We need reform in this country to tackle white collar crime and I respectfully submit that your blaming the Gardaí for this is simplistic to say the least. Give the Gardaí the tools and resources to properly tackle white colar crime and they most certainly will.

Jayzus their only Irish peace keepers not the bloody CIA! The government control every aspect of the country and nobody else!

It’d be interesting to see if you’d do their job, Miller

a private police force….. cause nothing wrong could ever happen with that idea!!

Coming from someone who had David Cameron as a profile picture and who’s twitter account is @ hatethePS!! #moron