Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is one reality for some and then there is a totally different reality for others. I did look at the minutes of the meeting but it did not give exact calculations on how the €81,000 was agreed on. It just seems that €292,000 was seen as a nice, round number. The Minister mentioned in his opening statement that he feels the figure of €292,000 is commensurate with the scale of responsibility, but he recently voted against pay for student nurses. Is it the case that voting against pay for student nurses is commensurate with the scale of responsibility?

The Minister indicated that he looked at international examples. I am very interested in how he benchmarked this and what international examples he considered. The director general of the WHO earns €199,000. The top scale for Britain's most senior civil servant, who manages a civil service workforce of 456,000, earns approximately €232,000. It seems to me that this is significantly higher than international comparators. Could the Minister clarify what international examples he looked at and how he benchmarked this because it seems to be outrageously high?