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

I will clarify this point because the Minister wants to make a mountain out a molehill, and he can shake his head all he wants. The key point I am making on the pay of low-paid and middle-paid banking workers is as follows. The issue of variable pay becomes far less of an issue if the key question of the unsatisfactory basic rates of pay is dealt with. There are too many low-paid workers in the banks and there are too many workers on middle incomes in the banks who should be paid at a higher rate. The key way to address that is the question of the basic rate of pay.

The State has used its controlling interest in the banks to prevent those pay issues being addressed in the past. In that sense the Minister has been part of the problem, rather than the solution. I am open to a discussion on variable pay and I do not have a problem with that, provided the Minister is talking about low and medium-paid workers, rather than the executives at the top. It is far less of an issue if the Minister does what I am arguing for and deals with the key issue, namely the basic rates of pay, which this Government has been a problem on in the last while.

The Minister has not addressed my question about a vote in the Dáil. It is not a legal necessity but it would be the right moral thing to do. I put the question to him again and I ask him to answer it this time. Will the Minister have the courage of his convictions and allow a vote of the Dáil on this issue?