Under the headline "It's part of the dance", Jack Horgan Jones writes in today's Irish Times: "Meetings of the two sides to thrash out a multibillion-euro accord every few years have become a well-established part of the choreography of Irish public administration." Also available HERE.

The Irish Times coverage follows announcements by a number of unions, including Fórsa, that public service members are to be balloted for industrial action. The issue was a matter of some heated debate on RTÉ Radio One's Saturday political panel, featuring education minister Hildegarde Naughton, Sorca Clarke (Sinn Féin TD for Longford Westmeath), and George Lawlor, (Labour TD for Wexford).

The Business Post led yesterday with a hostile and sensationalist take on the pay talks: Revealed: Public sector pay deal risks blowing Budget ’27. Also available HERE.

The Business Post also had Kevin Callinan as its guest on last week's podcast episode, "to discuss the current stalemate between unions and government, his career as a trade unionist, how the fuel protests have changed the nature of bargaining with the state." You can access that episode here. In his coverage of Kevin's interview on Saturday, the BP's Peter O'Dwyer draws on the same metaphor as Horgan-Jones: "There is always somewhat of a dance involved in such negotiations and, clearly, neither party wants to be seen as a soft touch."

Elsewhere, drawing on the Oberstown annual report, the Irish Examiner reports that the country’s only detention facility for children had the maximum possible number of boys it can hold for almost 40% of 2025 — twice the amount as 2024. The same paper reports today that women in the EU are losing billions of euros because of a failure to swiftly implement new gender pay transparency laws, equating to more than €600 annually being left on the table for the average female worker. 

Meanwhile, a new EU directive to be implemented by this December will change how delivery workers are classified. RTÉ reports that the new classification "will likely increase prices of takeaways for customers," a reminder of how precarious employment is habitually used to reduce costs and maximise profits. 

In other news, The Irish Museum of Modern Art (Imma) will not have money to pay its pensioners at some point this year, its chair has warned, after the Government gave it €275,000 less than it sought to fund payments in the last budget. 

Your Zen moment this morning is inspired by Laurie Anderson's incredible Dublin performance at the National Concert Hall on Saturday night. With an amzing band (Sexmob) she took us on a tour of powerful ideas. This version of Bob Dylan's A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall made me hear the song anew. 

Have a great week.

NS