Campaign Diary Day 17 - Vested Interests

The term vested interest has been flung around over the last few days by all parties in the election. From Labour we get attacks on landlords big business as they seem to move to Fine Gael from Fianna Fáil. From the right we get the attacks on the Trade Unions as vested interests hanging around Labour's neck like an albatross. And everyone is attacking RTE about their biased coverage of the election.

What I don't get is why people are so caught up on the term. There is no other type of interest except a vested one. If you don't have skin in the game then you wouldn't give a hoot about the outcome. The Unions are there to represent their members' interests, IBEC is there to represent the views of business owners. Whether or not they have succeeded in this goal over the last few years is neither here nor there. That is their goal and they should not be attacked for doing what they are designed to do.

I had an interesting conversation with a surveyor the other day in Ranelagh. He was very put off by Labour's policy on outlawing upward only rent reviews and claimed that it would be a distortion in the market. Now to my mind the current setup already massively distorts the market. In the commercial world rents are generally a proportion of the cost price of the premises. In a world of falling property prices, the rents have to come down. Otherwise I will just relocate my business to an adjacent building offering lower rents. The alternative is that with all other costs and prices falling, rent will become too much of a burden and I shut up shop.

If the choice has to be made between protecting property owners' investments and protecting viable businesses providing employment to staff and generating tax revenues I certainly know which side I come down on. The removal of upward only rent reviews is the right thing to do.

Of course the gentleman in Ranelagh saw no irony in then attacking various vested interests of public sector workers and unions after blatantly pushing his own vested interest for the previous five minutes. Maybe I should send him an Alannis Morissette CD before polling day.

Unions Capitulate

Well it was always going to end this way. Despite the early results from the frontline groups such as teachers and the lower paid clerical staff, the vast swathes of mid-grade pen-pushers in the larger unions carried the Croke Park deal. So now we're in for a few years of the reform agenda with the promise of no further cuts (subject to national finances).

The gap in the public finances should be tackled from both ends - costs need to be reduced, but at the same time putting more people back to work reduces Welfare costs and increases tax revenues. Agreeing to hold public sector pay static until 2014 and rely on natural wastage in the system is not going to help close the gap much. It is also landing the next government with a time-bomb. By 2012/13 the agreement will more than likely need to be broken and FF will start playing politics again blaming FG/Lab/whoever for stabbing the public sector workers.

Of course the really interesting part is what will happen with the teachers and other groups that rejected the deal. Will they go along with the majority vote in ICTU or will they continue their actions against the cutbacks? If the disputes continue, will the government declare the unions as rogue and start implementing forced redundancies and cuts on their members? There will be some heated debates within the teachers' unions over the summer break to come up with a workable strategy that protects their and the students' interests without alienating an already hostile private sector.

Just for the record, as a SIPTU member in higher education, I voted against the deal.

A striking we will go

I should come as no surprise to people that, one by one, the union executives are recommending rejection of the Croke Park deal. The deal is not sellable in its current form where in return for guaranteeing industrial peace for a period of time, the government has carte blanche in redefining the terms and conditions of employment of the entire public sector.

The issue about re-paying the cuts to lower paid is a red herring. Yes, those under €30k or so should not have been targeted in the last round of pay cuts. However, after the back tracking on the senior civil servants and the uproar on Joe Duffy et al, turning back the clock on the lower paid is not an option.

The sooner this deal is rejected and industrial action starts up again with a view to forcing an election the better. Piecemeal action that just aggravates the public is pointless - a general downing of tools is required. We could do worse than take our lead from Thailand. I'm ready to do my part!