‘Some public servants ARE lazy’

A FIANNA Fáil TD has said he stands by comments he made accusing public servants of laziness and using the pandemic as an excuse to lie on the couch and watch box sets. Marc MacSharry, pictured, said his remarks were intentionally ‘evocative’ and public servants should be scrutinised. In a speech in the Dáil late on Tuesday night, he alleged that public-sector productivity had fallen and said this was ‘unacceptable’. He pointed to ‘many elements’ in the public service who are ‘using this situation as cover to lie on the couch and watch box sets, returning an odd call here and there’. Mr MacSharry said yesterday that he stood by his comments even though it would lose him votes. ‘The box sets remark was evocative and it was a figure of speech to capture the point

I was making in the context of a debate on social welfare,’ he said. ‘I also raised the fact that, across the public sector, Covid-19 is, in my experience, being used as cover for some – clearly it does not apply to all of them,’ he told RTÉ Radio. Mr MacSharry said he is aware that his remarks could prove costly. ‘This will lose me votes – absolutely it will. But if politics was just about populism I’d have joined Sinn Féin or gone Independent years ago,’ he said. Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy distanced himself from his party colleague’s comments in the Dáil. He said most public servants exceeded the ‘call of duty’ during the pandemic. But he added ‘in some instances, some people probably did take the mick’ but overall his dealings with public servants were positive.