Good morning! good morning, good morning! by Niall Shanahan
Good morning colleagues,
The Irish Times reports that Siptu has said many health service staff potentially face losing thousands of euro in income if they continue working beyond the age of 65 under new Government measures.
Elsewhere, it was reported at the weekend that IALPA confirmed on Friday that a majority of members voted in favour of a new pay and productivity deal with Aer Lingus. The Irish TImes reports that the deal provides for 10.9% pay increases over 33 months, dating back to last year.
In the Irish Examiner, Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform Patrick O’Donovan writes about public sector procurement, and says it's a "myth" that larger suppliers are favoured by the public procurement process.
One healdine that caught my eye this morning came from the Leinster Leader's Kildare column. Robert Mulhern writes Let's give our public servant heroes their due. He was responding to news that retained firemen and women in Kildare have been passed over for a national service award.
Also in the news this morning, President Michael D Higgins earned the “gratitude” of the Greek people when he expressed solidarity with their country during its “disastrous” experience under austerity.
Your Zen this morning was prompted by a chat with some old friends about The Police. Guitarist Andy Summers will be playing in Dublin, Belfast and Cork in May. I'll be sitting this one out as it coincides with Fórsa's national conference. We debated the merits of Andy's contribution to the band, Sting's ego, the alleged fist fights within the band, and ranked all their albums. There was much disagreement among us on all of these points, but on our favourite song we were unanimous.
