IRELAND
Ireland has been shocked by the revelation that the basic pay of clerical Public Servants is below the country’s poverty line.
This came to light in a newspaper interview with Cathleen Shiels (pictured), a clerical officer working for the Department of Education, whose take-home pay works out at €9.86 (A$15.42) an hour — more than €2 (A$3.13) less than the living wage.
An arts graduate, Ms Shiels, 32, says she has survived until now because her rent is relatively cheap for Dublin — €450 (A$700) a month for a sharehouse.
However, her four-year lease is coming to an end, and she fears a rent hike of up to €300 (A$470).
“I’m very anxious thinking about what that might mean,” Ms Shiels said.
“I’ll have to cut back further on my food bill.”
She said she will have to think about sharing a room.
“As a woman in her 30s, it is horrible, but I don’t really know what I will do,” Ms Shiels said.
“I work in the city centre, but I don’t go out for lunch like other women my age; I go to Aldi on a Sunday and buy in things for my lunch.”
She said she does not remember the last time she went to a cinema — and going out for a drink on payday is out of the question.
Ms Shiels said she left short-term contracts in the private sector for “stability and security” in the Public Service.
“People think Civil Servants are all earning this big money, on these great pensions, but that is not true for the vast majority of us,” she said.
However, she has hopes of a promotion “so I don’t have to worry about paying my rent”.
Dublin, 17 July 2018
