Public servants
Public servants are "wildly rich", according to the Irish Independent's lead headline. The Irish Times lead story says there are plans to get them to pay more for their pensions.
In the Independent, Anne Marie Walsh explains that it was the chief executive of the main employers' group, Ibec, who said public sector workers are "wildly rich" compared with their counterparts in the private sector, in terms of their pensions.
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The Ibec man, Danny McCoy, said that the value of pensions and job security would have to be central when the government makes a decision to give further increases on top of those due under the Lansdowne Road agreement.
McCoy is not quoted in the Times story, but the message is similar. Martin Wall reports that plans to get staff in the public service to pay more towards their pensions are being examined by the government.
He quotes informed sources as saying this would be in tandem with the unwinding of the existing public service pension levy, and any pay increases under a successor to the Lansdowne Road deal. And he notes that, in an interview with the Sunday Business Post, the Minister for Public Expenditure, Paschal Donohoe, said public service pensions would be on the table as part of pay talks with unions next year.
European Commission
The Irish Examiner leads on its front page with what it calls a rebuke of the European Commission by the Irish government. Juno McEnroe reports that in a strongly worded defence by the government of its position on whether the Apple computer company received 13 billion euro in state aid, the Commission is accused of trying to rewrite Irish tax rules, and of wrongly interpreting laws.
The paper says that the rebuke, published overnight by the government, was released before the expected publication today from Brussels of the commission's ruling on why it claims Apple owes Ireland 13 billion euro in back tax.
Car insurance
Car insurance is the main story for the Irish Daily Mail. Leah McDonald reports that at the end of November there were 151,000 uninsured vehicles on Irish roads, an increase of 85 percent in three years. Conor Faughnan, of the motorists' pressure group the AA, is quoted as warning that any rise in the number of uninsured vehicles could lead to an increase in premiums across the board.
Anthony Foley
The rugby star Anthony Foley, who died in October, is celebrated in the Irish Sun's front page story. The paper says his widow Olive, and their two sons laid a red Munster jersey at the altar of the basilica in Knock during a memorial mass for him yesterday. And they are pictured on the Examiner's front page as well.
Elsewhere
The Independent has an editorial about the destruction of the Syrian city of Aleppo. It is a tragedy which beggars belief, says the paper. Half a million people have died, and almost two million people were maimed. And by now half the Syrian nation's 23 million people have been driven from their homes.
The writer says that the US, Britain and the European Union have allowed Russia and its allies to help Bashar Al-Assad wreak havoc on his own people.
The bitter reality, says the Independent, is that the world has failed the people of Aleppo and Syria, and we all share the shame.
