Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

He is. If the Minister wants me to swap seats with him and introduce a budget, I am happy to be scrutinised on all of that. The Minister knows that median earnings is an accurate way of looking at the reflection of wages in society and he has acknowledged that under the €750 million package somebody on €30,000 or €35,000 will benefit. He has also acknowledged that only 23% of income earners will benefit from that and that is not the fair way. We are well paid in this position and the Minister is well paid in his position. Ministers are on something like €180,000 per year now. It is hard to explain that the Minister is bringing in a tax package that costs €1.22 billion in total and that a Minister will benefit four times more than somebody on €35,000.