Mr. Shay Cody:

I do not believe the Deputy will find many trade unions arguing the solution to the economic crisis we are in is to cut pay. The argument the trade unions have made consistently is that if there is a financial crisis - and there is - what we should do is to tax higher pay. That is equitable. In fact, were one to decide to deal with higher public service pay in isolation, I would note it is a small drop in the ocean compared with the number of highly paid people right across the economy. The figure given earlier is that there are fewer than 6,000 public servants earning more than €100,000 while there are more than 100,000 people in the private sector earning that amount.