The weather in Ireland this week has been nothing short of atrocious.
Hurricane strength winds and rain swept the country with devastating consequences for homes and businesses, particularly in the southwest.
Towns like Fermoy, Mallow and Clonmel experienced massive flooding in the centre of their towns and emergency services were called in to assist with the rescue of people and possessions.
These low lying-areas have of course seen it all before and suffer again because remedial measures have never been put in place.
Further east the damage was much less, as the west and south had broken the back of the storms as they traveled across the country.
Nonetheless, it was a far from pleasant week for anybody living in Ireland.
It was certainly not a week to be on an Ireland vacation, although Ireland travel sources say there are many tourists in the country at this time of year, amazingly.
Despite the storms we were smiling, come Thursday last.
We state this fact whilst having the greatest of sympathy with those unfortunate people who suffered the effects of the storms.
The reason for our display of mirth was the publication of the Benchmarking Review of Pay for public service workers.
Regular readers will be familiar with our contempt of the working practices and pay scales of public service employees, not to mention the fact that there are about three times as many employed in this sector as there should be.
The last review in 2002, called the Benchmarking Process, awarded scandalous pay and pension increases across the whole range of workers, managers and pay scales leading to the now infamous comments by Senator Joe O'Toole, then president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, that benchmarking was like taking money from ATM's.
His own union, the INTO, representing national school teachers, had benefited enormously from the process which compared and measured pay across the whole range of the public services against those in the private sector, and benchmarked one against the other, resulting in a cost to the taxpayer of well over a billion euro! Soothing sounds made at the time by the unions said this all linked to increased productivity and output.
This laughable comment was from the very people whose only output was difficult to measure, as it was generally delivered into a toilet bowl! O'Toole could not contain himself, boasting to his own annual conference about the great deal he had engineered, and stupidly alienating the public support that was always there for teachers, nurses, care workers etc.
by his ATM comments.
In the intervening years since 2002, as everybody wit a peanut-sized brain predicted, productivity in the public sector actually declined leading to the installation of more toilets to cater for the waste output.
Since 2002 the public service workforce increased by 84% to do the same job as they were doing before the benchmarking increases.
The unfortunate taxpayer, instead of getting more for their money actually got less, and by the end of 2007, an incredible 20% of the Irish workforce was employed by the public sector.
Last Thursday, the unions representing all those workers were salivating at the prospect of another generous payout that would keep them in the lifestyle to which they had become accustomed.
They were in for a shock! The Commission awarded zero increases across the board, with some notable exceptions made in senior management scales.
Oh, but it was great fun to hear the howling and screeching from the various trade unions when their hopes of another big payday were dashed.
One by one, their spokesmen were trotted out with the same increasingly weary line of how disappointed they were, that they were considering their position, that there would be anger in the ranks, implying a thinly-veiled threat of industrial action, and how they wanted urgent meetings with Government to reverse the decisions of the Benchmarking Commission.
We did not hear much complaint in 2002 when their response to criticism of the shameful increases they got was to say that the Commission was an independent body and they had to accept their recommendations although, of course, welcoming the increases it had given them.
Now they cry, as would the child deprived of the regular Friday sweet treat because Dad was late home from work (delayed on M50, no doubt, because of some crazy public service decisions).
Listen guys, we at will give it to you straight.
We agree with you that the Commission was wrong not to give any increases in your pay.
What it should have done was take away the award it gave to you lot in 2002! In the real world if you enter into a contract and you fail to honour it, you are penalized appropriately.
You did not become more productive - you became less so.
You were lucky to keep what you got dishonestly.
If anybody has a right to be angry, the taxpayers who fund your largesse have first call.
If you are going to consider your position, let us advise you to do so taking into account the following scenario: In two years time, your houses will be worth half of what you paid for them.
Unemployment will be at 20%.
The budget deficit will be so large that the IMF will run the country and the price of oil will mean heating your home will consume all your income leaving you to beg for food in the streets of Latvia and Romania.
Trocaire boxes will be filled at Lent by the people of Africa for the poor and hungry in Ireland and the only bench marking that will concern you is the excrement marks that somebody left on the park bench you have to sleep on tonight!What about the ATM machines, we might ask?The only reason you will have to be near one is to mug the person withdrawing the cash.
Moreover, you had better hurry because Senator Joe O Toole will be there before you.
Think about it and shiver at reality!