Kehoe, however, poses an interesting, if somewhat rhetorical, question in his article: "But would it not make more sense to have an overarching, social partnership-style arrangement that focuses on living standards, including creche support, taxation, social welfare, rather than just headline pay?" 

ICTU general secretary Owen Reidy has a strong piece in the Irish Examiner about the necessity for fair tax reform to benefit workers.

Elsewhere, in the aftermath of Friday afternoon's meeting on the ICTU Public Services Committee, The Irish Times reported on Saturday that disruption to schools and the health service "is likely after public sector unions agreed to stage a one-day strike on October 14th." The Irish Independent and RTÉ also picked up the story.

Former FG TD John Deasy, writing in the Business Post, appears to be of the opinion that the Government will inevitably cough up: "Paying off the fuel protestors and agricultural contractors with billions in taxpayers money was an easy call for Harris. The fact that it set a dreadful precedent by ceding authority to a mob just as public pay negotiations were stalling won’t bother him. Chambers is the line minister who has to deal with the unions. Harris will just write Chambers a cheque after he’s been torn apart by the teachers."

Muiris Ó Cearbhaill, meanwhile, writes in the Daily Mail about how "AI could take over public service admin roles as Government targets €34bn pay bill," opening with news that the Government "is considering plans to replace middle management and administrative roles in the bloated public service with artificial intelligence systems." I haven't seen 'bloated' used since the heady days of 2009. The recent media focus on increases in public service employment tend not to make any reference to the growing population, nor the long and damaging recruitment moratorium that has made the post-2015 recruitment pattern necessary.

Meanwhile, Michael O'Leary's comments last week continues to be the attract media scrutiny. Fórsa is on record as describing the comments as deeply inappropriate, and was widely reported by the Press Association last week. Matt Cooper describes the comments as 'utterly inexcusable' and expresses the hope that O'Leary will have apologised by the time Cooper's column went to print. He makes the following observation: "I suspect though that whatever he does will be influenced by two things: the first he will examine the level of bookings over the 24 hours after the controversy and see if they have gone up or down against prior expectations." Unfortunately, I very much doubt a fluctuation in bookings will make an appearance.

Finally, That's Not Your Job - Sarah O'Connor writes in The Irish Times about how a recent analysis by OpenAI found that people frequently use ChatGPT for work tasks "which lie beyond the traditional boundary of their own occupation, such as troubleshooting software issues, drafting marketing materials and calculating financial data," and that the traditional boundaries of many occupations are beginning to weaken as people use AI to perform elements of one another’s jobs.   

Your Zen this morning considers the cultural significance of Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out of my Head 25 years on from its release.

Have a great week.

NS