Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There were four questions. First, with regard to the assertion that public servants in my Department and elsewhere are grossly overpaid, I told the committee that one of the people we recruited recently - I will not embarrass him by mentioning his name - is paid half of what he earned in the private sector. We need to get people of the highest calibre. There is populism in saying that everybody can be paid the same, be they the road sweeper or the brain surgeon. There was an ideology on that as Deputy Higgins will know-----