Marc Coleman: 'Politicians must weigh up cost of plans for pay rises and tax cuts'

There are dangers in any policy that delivers for public and corporate sectors and not the majority, says Marc Coleman

NATIONAL CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL: The soar-away spend has not been an encouraging use of public funds

Marc Coleman

'The financial emergency is long over, and our members played no small part in ensuring that our economic recovery was secured." In The run-up to May's European elections, Ciaran Rohan of the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants (AHCPS) used those words to make a convincing case for restoring public pay to pre-crisis levels.

Few will begrudge his call. Since 2008, the economy - even by the most conservative measure of gross national income (GNI) - has expanded by more than one third, the budget is balanced for the first time since the crisis and more than 400,000 new jobs have been created. So the case for this call is strong. But what about the equally strong case for restoring private sector after-tax pay to pre-crisis levels?