Frontline Fun

Disclaimer: I am using the expression "frontline" in the modern British political sense, which means teachers, nurses etc, not in the traditional sense of soldiers on active duty, whose plight out in Afgh is far from "fun".

Republic of Ireland: public sector employees 300,000 divided by population 4,460,000= 6.7%.

United Kingdom: public sector employees 8,145,000* divided by population 61,113,205 = 13.3%

I'd be grateful if readers who have lived in both countries could leave a comment saying whether 'public services' in the UK are twice as good as in the Republic of Ireland? A bit better, a bit worse, much the same?

* See Table 5(2), column l-n, includes all taxpayer-funded jobs. Even taking the narrower definition, there are 6,020,000 public sector employees, which equates to 9.9% of the population.