Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 26 January 2022
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised)
Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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I thank the Minister. Obviously, most people will have felt in their pocket the significant increase in the price of petrol, diesel and electricity. Farmers are seeing their fertiliser costs triple and the cost of foodstuffs has increased. The Minister would present himself as a fiscally-responsible Minster during this period of time. Is it fiscally responsible to give a civil servant an increase of €81,000 and then one of €3,000 within the same year? Is it fiscally responsible to have wage inflation within Departments? This committee has done a wonderful report on the process, or lack of process, by which that wage increase was picked out of the sky. Contrast the largesse experienced by the political class with the rest of society who are seeing their spending power reduced at this point in time.