IMPACT general secretary Shay Cody spoke to Newstalk Drive on Friday evening (listen from about 6 minutes into this link) about the future of public sector pay agreements and pay retoration.
Over the weekend, public sector pay, pay disputes and next week's budget were drawn together in much of the commentary. Michael Clifford's column in Saturday's Irish Examiner is probably the best of the bunch and worth a few minutes of your time.
The recently renewed discussion on public service pay has revived a tone of reporting not seen in this parish since 2009. Once again, the public versus private narrative is being dusted off and given an airing.
While our FGE colleagues in the Garda College in Templemore begin a work to rule action today, the Irish Times focuses on the opposite end of the civil service payscales. It's front page reports that one in five retiring civil servants paid lump sums of over €100,000, while Colm Keena in the same paper writes about civil service pensions. The words 'whopping' and 'unsustainable' appear early in the piece, so you get the general idea. Expect more of this in the weeks and months ahead.
And so the countdown to Brexit begins, with PM Theresa May announcing yesterday that she will trigger article 50 before the end of March 2017, setting in motion the two-year process of leaving the European Union. May also announced plans for a “great repeal bill” to incorporate all EU regulations in UK law as soon as Brexit takes effect.
Your moment of Zen comes (almost) live from New York. It's Saturday Night Live's take on last week's Trump v Clinton debate, with Alec Baldwin doing quite a job on Trump, and Kate McKinnon is excellent as Hillary Clinton.
