Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
The Industrial Committee of the Communist Party of Ireland stands in full solidarity with public service workers striking over pay and declining living standards. The government allowed the previous agreement to expire without obtaining a credible successor and must now make substantive movement. Workers are right to reject any settlement […]
Turmoil has characterised international bond markets across September. As a reminder, governments borrow money mainly by issuing bonds. Investors lend money to governments, receiving interest in return, with the original sum repaid later. Bonds are bought by typically large financial institutions: banks, pension funds, insurance companies and investment funds. They […]
Have pay increases for teachers kept pace with inflation over the last number of years? No, the same as the rest of the public service and, more broadly, most workers. Pay increases under the “Building Momentum” pay deal and the first two years of the Public Service Agreement 2024–26 amounted […]
Ireland is approaching a significant confrontation between organised labour and the State. The public service pay agreement expired at the end of June, without a successor agreement or formal negotiations. Since then, unions representing workers across healthcare, education, local government, the civil service and State agencies have balloted their members […]
Organised Workers have had enough! The Communist Party of Ireland welcomes the clear mandate from public sector workers for industrial action over pay and conditions in the public sector. Unions across the public sector have been returning massive ballot results in favour of industrial action demonstrating that public sector workers […]
UK consumer price inflation, the relevant measure for the North’s economy, was at 2.6% in June, down from 2.8% in May. Food inflation was just 1.7%, below the rates experienced during the 2022–2024 inflationary spike. The inflation rate has fallen, but the general price level remains roughly 30% above where […]
The Irish people are broadly ‘left-wing’ when we look at support for typically social-democratic or socialist positions on things like collective bargaining, housing, healthcare, neutrality and transport. Yet combinations of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael continue to be elected and form Governments who actively deliver against these popular positions time […]
The previous public sector pay deal, Public Service Agreement, delivered 10.25% pay increases over effectively 3 years in 7 phased payments plus a local bargaining payment of 1% to be agreed by the sectors within the public service. This final element, meant to provide for local bargaining to resolve specific […]
Recent reports on the Irish economy show that Modified Domestic Demand, a better estimate of economic activity than Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Ireland because it strips out some of the distortions caused by foreign multinational activity, rose by 0.3% between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026, spurred by personal spending […]
The Government’s Summer Economic Statement sets Budget parameters for 2027: an €8.5 billion package, involving €7 billion above the 2026 expenditure ceiling and €1.5 billion of tax measures. The €1.5bn announced for tax measures likely signals changes to income-tax bands, thereby preventing what is known as ‘fiscal drag’ – when […]
We are witnessing a full-court press of business lobbying against workers’ rights – specifically, for the focus of this article, but against so-called ‘gold-plated’ regulations more generally. Pay Transparency is meant to be legislated for and in place from June by the Government in Dublin. However, they have now said […]
Ireland is experiencing an inflationary slowdown. Forecasts point to growth falling from expectations of near 3% to now 1.6% for 2026. Higher energy prices, alongside the decline in last year’s exports surge, feed that dynamic. Inflation is likely to register at least 3.3% in 2026. There are already signs of […]
It is not uncommon to hear dismissal of trade unions among leftists: too conservative, don’t mobilise enough, too eager to make deals with employers and so on. The issue for Communists is not whether these criticisms are true; it is rather that they miss the point. Unions reflect a market […]
Marx wrote the passage below pointing unions forward, away from narrow sectional interests and towards playing a role within the great push towards socialism underway at the time. In addition to their original tasks, the trade unions must now learn how to act consciously as focal points for organising the […]
SIPTU presents itself as the largest force for organised labour in Ireland. Its scale is cited as proof of strength, of presence, of the collective weight of workers. Yet for many members, especially those in small and medium workplaces, the reality of SIPTU representation is starkly different. Instead of strength, […]
Trade union density in the 26 Counties stands at a stark 22%, with collective bargaining coverage at around 34%. This is a catastrophic decline from the peak of approximately 60% density in the 1980s. Yet, this bleak picture obscures a crucial reality: there is a massive representation gap between actual […]