The shape of public sector cuts to come?

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Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials
21 July 2009

Last week a special report commissioned by the Irish government came up with a "menu" of public sector spending cuts, supposedly to pay for a £17bn budget deficit - which arose from its bank-bailout!

It is pretty shocking: it recommends cuts across the board, including a 5% cut in the welfare budget! In other words, the most blatant measure by any government yet, to force the very poorest in this society to pay for "saving" the bankers'!

Ireland is just one small step ahead of Britain on the recessionary road. Proportionally speaking, its aid to the banks was at a similar level; it had a housing bubble slightly bigger than Britain's. And then, on top of it all, a large part of the capital invested in Ireland is British - and much of Ireland's so-called "affluence" of the past two decades was based on finance - directly linked to London's City.

This is why these proposals could be seen as a blueprint for Brown and who ever comes after him. And they would be emanating from exactly the same source - London's financiers.

For the Irish population, the measures would entail cuts in child benefit, unemployment benefit, carers' benefits; and retirement age would be increased - although a cut in state pensions per se is not spelt out - for obvious reasons! Some benefits would just be discontinued - like that for dental and optical treatments and for hearing aids.

As for health, 6,168 staff would be sacked, nurses would have to do doctors' work, eligibility for free prescriptions would be limited further. All levels of education would have cuts, but first for the chop would be special needs teachers!

A 5% cut in public sector jobs means 17,500 civil service workers, teachers and nurses - and even police. It doesn't make sense even from capital's own point of view as it cuts purchasing power.

But never mind. While the Irish businessmen insist that the public sector pays, this is exactly what is being pushed for by the CBI over here. Bowing to their every demand, Brown, Darling and Mandelson have already begun implementing job cuts and have announced NHS spending cuts.

Will the Irish government get away with this unprecedented austerity package? That remains to be seen. Just this February it tried to impose a 10% levy on public sector pensions and was met by 120,000 angry workers, who surrounded parliament, threatening a general strike. This in itself forced a partial climb down and the Irish TUC called off the strike. Which only goes to show, once more, that it is quite possible to stop the bosses and their governments in their tracks - but only if we prevent union leaderships from scuppering the fight.