Ms Patricia King:

Yes. I refer to common sense and using your head. One should restructure and ask people to do something in a different way to see if one can manage the resource differently instead of coming in with a diktat and saying, "This is how we are going to do it."

To get back to the Deputy's question, the people concerned have a set of budget figures that they must produce at mid-year or the end of a year and they must balance the books. They can state they made savings in so many areas. The fact that the Department of Social Protection might see an increase in its bill for family income supplement give it little reason to worry because it has done its piece. Why should it worry about some other Department? That indicates the disjointed nature of the approach taken.

I refer to those on a wage of approximately €27,000 or €28,000. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald has said she has not heard the trade unions state this, that and the other about those on high pay. Perhaps she is lucky that she has not been at some of the meetings that I attend every day because not only have I said it, but I have also said it to their faces. There is no better way than to say it to their faces and, as my colleagues know, I do it on a regular basis because there is an inequity in t5he system against which we have argued and which we continue to resist beause it is the lower grades which pay. Certainly, my union has been to the forefront in arguing against it and it will continue to do so. Every time it happens, it tests the Croke Park agreement to the limit. That is what has happened and I am not making any claim that cannot be substantiated. That is the reality of what has happened.