Westport based Fine Gael councillor Peter Flynn has hit out at the industrial action being taken by the members of the public service unions in Mayo County Council in their dispute over pay cuts saying, “The lunatics have taken over the asylum”.
Cllr Flynn was responding to county secretary John Condon, who told the meeting that in future the meetings will have to start at 2pm so they can finish at 5pm, due to the ongoing action by unions. “I’m deeply disappointed with the unions and those who argue for them,” Cllr Flynn said. “We do not know from hour to hour or day to day how we are going to be affected by the action.” He went on to say that Mayo County Council is the only council that has not made a single job cut, and Mayo County Council has in fact seen its employee numbers rise over the last three years.
Cllr Flynn’s argument was supported by Independent councillor Frank Durcan. “I thoroughly agree with you, we didn’t make this problem,” Cllr Durcan said. “The attitude of the staff is doing them no favours. Nobody hasn’t been affected by this recession. I know they may have entered into financial commitments over the last few years, and they don’t have the same money now, but nobody does. I do have sympathy with them, but there is going to be a serious divide between the public and private sector if this continues.”
Sinn Féin councillor Rose Conway Walsh told the meeting she was disturbed with what she was hearing, saying that a lot of workers in the public service were on very low wages. She said they had employment rights that had to be protected. Cllr Durcan responded that he had no problem with the junior and middle staff in the council, it was those on the higher wages with whom he had issue.
