This week is supposed to be another crunch week in the Government's slow-motion process of bringing order to the Irish public finances. What is clear from the public debate about pay and pensions in the public and private sectors, is that misperceptions are rife and it appears that the distorted view of the private sector, which was the genesis of sham benchmarking a decade ago, remains strong. Crony Ireland and a small segment in clover while a million workers without an occupational pension and 150,000 facing job losses in 2009 alone, is far from a world of nirvana, which it appears to be perceived from the vantage of the public service.