Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

People understand the logic that the salary of a person who holds such massive responsibility will be commensurate with that responsibility. People's jaws dropped right across the country when the figures that we are discussing today were publicised.

The Minister mentioned the fact that we are competing internationally on this, but the Secretary of Health and Human Services in the USA earns less than €200,000 a year, the British Prime Minister earns just over €150,000 a year, and the director-general of the WHO earns less than €200,000 a year, as I understand it. These are also positions of high responsibility and the salaries are far less than the one we are discussing. There seems to be two Irelands here. There is the Ireland of the healthcare assistant who earns €24,000, or the student nurse, who is struggling to get any earnings for the work they are doing, and even the family carer, who earns about €11,000 per year. Do these people not need to receive proper salaries to recruit the number of individuals that we need? There are pinch points across the healthcare service in nursing and the caring professions because these people are not getting paid the salaries they need. How come the Government does not have the same attitude to these key workers as regards necessary salaries?