15 May 1997 Edition
Workers in struggle: Broken Promises of 1992
Today you will probably have the official confirmation that the Dublin Government is finally going to call an election. You must be warned though that where Leinster House parties are concerned you cannot have an election without bombarding electorates with a range of plans promising progressive action on the social and economic issues of the day.
`21 goals for the 21st century' is the title of the new plan from the three coalition parties. Fianna Fáil's manifesto is to be launched tomorrow.
Rather than taking the standard track of analysing the leaked proposals, how about taking a quick look at some other glossy plans, those produced by the Leinster House parties for the 1992 election and see how they stand up to the rigours of a term in office.
Labour are unique in being the only party to participate in government almost continuosly over the past five years. They have contributed to both the 1993 Partnership Government and the 1994 Government of Renewal.
Labour came into office on the promise that they stood for trust and integrity in public life. Included in Labour's policy plans were promises to develop a job creation strategy that would involve borrowing £360 million in 1993 for major work projects. They would end state company privatisation and would form a third banking force. Five years later none of those things have come to pass and Telecom, among other state companies, are to be sold off to the private sector.
Fianna Fáil promises in 1992 topped those of the Labour Party. They promised a £750 million job creation fund which would be invested in job creation projects. This was just part of Fianna Fáil's Six-Point Plan For National Progress, a plan now forgotten but which wil make interesting comparison with their new manifesto.
Fine Gael's plan was subtitled ``Let's bring out the best in the country'' which tells us in a personal message by John Bruton that ``Many people in Ireland have lost faith in politics and politicians. Huge problems face the country but politicians often seem to have other priorities''.
Fine Gael promised to cut employers' PRSI by 50% and yes, they have made inroads but a related promise was to guarantee every person at work a take home wage £25 in excess of what they would get on welfare. Even though social welfare increases over the past five years have been miserly there are thousands of workers for whom that promise of a wage £25 higher than welfare benefits is nothing but a pipe dream.
Despite these differences between the promise and the reality with Labour, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, it is the gap between the promises and Government record of Democratic Left that is most striking.
In 1992 Democratic Left wanted a £50 million community action programme to create £50,000 jobs in public and voluntary sectors. They proposed new taxes on wealth and energy and no reduction in employers PRSI. Healthcare should be available to all and there should be no distinction between public and private patients waiting for operations. All of these promises were somehow forgotten when Democratic Left entered government.
All of this is food for thought over the next four weeks when the parties publicise their manifestoes and trek to your doorsteps looking for votes.
There is an alternative to this merry go round of big proposals and broken promises. You can vote Sinn Féin, who are running 15 candidates in 14 constituencies on the simple premise that only the people can make change and no Leinster House politician can promise to deliver that.
Flying fat cats
The proposed £300 million flotation of Ryanair has got a huge amount of media coverage over the last week. Stock market flotations of private companies are an interesting time because the companies involved have to release financial details that normally stay under wraps.
In the case of Ryanair the bonus scheme paid to executive directors was an eye opener. They shared £24 million over three years with a massive £17 million going to chief executive Michael O'Leary. The scheme worked on the simple premise that the executive directors were entitled to 50% of the company's operating profits. The other 700 staff were excluded from this inner circle.
SIPTU negotiator at Dublin Airport Paul O'Sullivan criticised the scheme pointing out that workers at the airline were told that they could not have pay increases and extra pay for working Sundays and bank holidays because Ryanair could not afford to pay. Pay at the company starts at £3 an hour.
``The fat cats at the top creamed off the money that could have been used to pay the workforce a decent wage,'' said O'Sullivan. With the flotation O'Leary's salary will be set at £198,000 with bonuses up to 50% of his salary. O'Leary will also benefit from dividends off his shares which will be worth over £36.8 million. It seems that the only group not getting a payout from the Ryanair flotation are the 700 workers.
Gold Rush
``A cautionary tale about free enterprise and capitalism,'' was how one American commentator described one of the biggest corporate frauds perpertrated so far this year. However, unlike recent corporate scandals this was nothing to do with computer or electronic fraud; it was a good old-fashioned gold rush, where the only wealth created is on the stock exchange floor.
Bre-X in the Borneo jungle was supposed to be one of the largest gold deposits ever discovered. The frenzy to buy shares in the mine was unprecedented with major investment banks buying shares in the mining company. What is not clear is just who lost the £2.6 billion that investors paid for shares in the company.
What is clear is that greed and desire for profit means that some free enterprise capitalists have substantially smaller bank accounts this week and that is maybe not such a bad outcome.
Paulo Freire
Obituaries are fairly rare on this page but the death of Paulo Freire should be noted. Freire, the Brazilian educator and author, died aged 75 on 2 May. Freire's education programmes in Brazil aided tens of thousands of workers to overcome illiteracy. Adults were often able to read and write after 30 hours of tuition.
Freire's theories were published in his books Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Education As The Practice of Freedom. His efforts have helped possibly millions of workers across the globe and echo the writings of Thomas Davis and Padraig Pearse who also exposed in their writings the use of culture as a instrument of oppression.
`21 goals for the 21st century' is the title of the new plan from the three coalition parties. Fianna Fáil's manifesto is to be launched tomorrow.
Rather than taking the standard track of analysing the leaked proposals, how about taking a quick look at some other glossy plans, those produced by the Leinster House parties for the 1992 election and see how they stand up to the rigours of a term in office.
Labour are unique in being the only party to participate in government almost continuosly over the past five years. They have contributed to both the 1993 Partnership Government and the 1994 Government of Renewal.
Labour came into office on the promise that they stood for trust and integrity in public life. Included in Labour's policy plans were promises to develop a job creation strategy that would involve borrowing £360 million in 1993 for major work projects. They would end state company privatisation and would form a third banking force. Five years later none of those things have come to pass and Telecom, among other state companies, are to be sold off to the private sector.
Fianna Fáil promises in 1992 topped those of the Labour Party. They promised a £750 million job creation fund which would be invested in job creation projects. This was just part of Fianna Fáil's Six-Point Plan For National Progress, a plan now forgotten but which wil make interesting comparison with their new manifesto.
Fine Gael's plan was subtitled ``Let's bring out the best in the country'' which tells us in a personal message by John Bruton that ``Many people in Ireland have lost faith in politics and politicians. Huge problems face the country but politicians often seem to have other priorities''.
Fine Gael promised to cut employers' PRSI by 50% and yes, they have made inroads but a related promise was to guarantee every person at work a take home wage £25 in excess of what they would get on welfare. Even though social welfare increases over the past five years have been miserly there are thousands of workers for whom that promise of a wage £25 higher than welfare benefits is nothing but a pipe dream.
Despite these differences between the promise and the reality with Labour, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, it is the gap between the promises and Government record of Democratic Left that is most striking.
In 1992 Democratic Left wanted a £50 million community action programme to create £50,000 jobs in public and voluntary sectors. They proposed new taxes on wealth and energy and no reduction in employers PRSI. Healthcare should be available to all and there should be no distinction between public and private patients waiting for operations. All of these promises were somehow forgotten when Democratic Left entered government.
All of this is food for thought over the next four weeks when the parties publicise their manifestoes and trek to your doorsteps looking for votes.
There is an alternative to this merry go round of big proposals and broken promises. You can vote Sinn Féin, who are running 15 candidates in 14 constituencies on the simple premise that only the people can make change and no Leinster House politician can promise to deliver that.
Flying fat cats
The proposed £300 million flotation of Ryanair has got a huge amount of media coverage over the last week. Stock market flotations of private companies are an interesting time because the companies involved have to release financial details that normally stay under wraps.
In the case of Ryanair the bonus scheme paid to executive directors was an eye opener. They shared £24 million over three years with a massive £17 million going to chief executive Michael O'Leary. The scheme worked on the simple premise that the executive directors were entitled to 50% of the company's operating profits. The other 700 staff were excluded from this inner circle.
SIPTU negotiator at Dublin Airport Paul O'Sullivan criticised the scheme pointing out that workers at the airline were told that they could not have pay increases and extra pay for working Sundays and bank holidays because Ryanair could not afford to pay. Pay at the company starts at £3 an hour.
``The fat cats at the top creamed off the money that could have been used to pay the workforce a decent wage,'' said O'Sullivan. With the flotation O'Leary's salary will be set at £198,000 with bonuses up to 50% of his salary. O'Leary will also benefit from dividends off his shares which will be worth over £36.8 million. It seems that the only group not getting a payout from the Ryanair flotation are the 700 workers.
Gold Rush
``A cautionary tale about free enterprise and capitalism,'' was how one American commentator described one of the biggest corporate frauds perpertrated so far this year. However, unlike recent corporate scandals this was nothing to do with computer or electronic fraud; it was a good old-fashioned gold rush, where the only wealth created is on the stock exchange floor.
Bre-X in the Borneo jungle was supposed to be one of the largest gold deposits ever discovered. The frenzy to buy shares in the mine was unprecedented with major investment banks buying shares in the mining company. What is not clear is just who lost the £2.6 billion that investors paid for shares in the company.
What is clear is that greed and desire for profit means that some free enterprise capitalists have substantially smaller bank accounts this week and that is maybe not such a bad outcome.
Paulo Freire
Obituaries are fairly rare on this page but the death of Paulo Freire should be noted. Freire, the Brazilian educator and author, died aged 75 on 2 May. Freire's education programmes in Brazil aided tens of thousands of workers to overcome illiteracy. Adults were often able to read and write after 30 hours of tuition.
Freire's theories were published in his books Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Education As The Practice of Freedom. His efforts have helped possibly millions of workers across the globe and echo the writings of Thomas Davis and Padraig Pearse who also exposed in their writings the use of culture as a instrument of oppression.