Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

In his introductory remarks, the Minister laid a certain emphasis on the fact that the new Secretary General of the Department of Health will be coming into the position at a time of great challenge with the pandemic, etc. There are other public sector workers who face very difficult tasks and challenges in doing their work at this point in the pandemic. One such group, for example, is nurses. The Minister's proposal is that nurses would have a 1% pay increase this year. The pay increase for the Secretary General is 40%. Does the Minister believe that a pay increase 40 times that of the percentage pay increase for a nurse is justifiable in the current conditions? Does he accept that a pay increase which is more than the vast majority of what nurses take home in a year is justifiable in the current circumstances given the work that those front line workers are doing in the pandemic?