Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Cody should note I would expect the public services committee to have a settled position on a couple of things in respect of these allowances and pay generally within the public sector. I would expect it to have a settled view that people on modest incomes cannot take another hit. I would expect it to have a settled view that it cannot tolerate what is almost pay apartheid within the system, whereby new entrants in particular or new beneficiaries, as the witnesses have pointed out, are put in a disadvantageous position. I would also expect that as trade unionists, the public services committee might take their own unilateral action and start looking at the albeit small number of people who earn excessive wages within the system. Almost 7,000 people are in receipt of more than €100,000 in the public and Civil Service. Moreover, that figure does not include city and county managers, heads of VECs and so on. It is striking that although the State and managements froze the unions out of a process regarding allowances that predominantly affects the pockets of people on lower incomes, the unions are allowing that to proceed, yet Mr. Cody makes a sarcastic remark to me as regards a position Sinn Féin takes on high earners within the system. I find that very striking.