'I don't think it's crowing': Unite trade union rejects ISME criticism of public sector pay rise calls

Brendan Ogle, of the Unite Trade Union says the challenges faced now are much different to the financial crisis in 2008.

He says: "I don't think it's crowing. When the last recession happened we had this concept of moral hazard.

"We were told at the time because: 'we all partied'-we didn't by the way but that was the narrative, that there couldn't be debt relief, there couldn't be rent freezes and there couldn't be moratoriums.

"What has happened here is the economy has been put into cold storage for public health reasons."

ISME says now is not 'appropriate' time to call for pay rises in public sector

The CEO of the business body ISME says now is not the time to be "crowing" for a pay rise.

It comes as unions look for a Government commitment to honour a 2% rise due to public servants in October.

Neil McDonnell, CEO of small and medium business group Isme, says it is not appropriate for the call to be made now.

"Really now is the time, notwithstanding that there are agreements in place, and I absolutely don't deny that there are agreements in place saying who gets what rise and when in the public sector," he says.

"But it really isn't something that is appropriate or sympathetic or empathetic to be crowing about in the national media," he says.

The Covid-19 pandemic hit the Irish economy severely disrupting business and impacting employment.

Today a leading economist warned that the Munster economy will take a lot longer to recover from the Covid-19 jobs slump even as a return to work gets underway for builders and some retail stores this week.

Jim Power said the return to work will show up the regional imbalances across the State between the Dublin and the east coast economy and everywhere else, as non-grocery retail will take much longer and large store owners will likely seek to tap the Government's wage-support scheme even as their workers leave the €350 a week payment.