Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I would. It did not do that, thank God — and I would not have taken it. It related increases to private sector posts. In its only reference to my post, it stated that the Chief Justice should not be paid more so it put my salary at exactly the same as the Chief Justice. That was the comparable point — that the Chief Justice should not earn more or less that the Taoiseach. Whether it is right or wrong, I am just saying this is the job it did. It compared other posts. It did that independently with actuarial advice, using Hay Management Consultants.

The last review is now already ten years ago. The next review will probably end up in 2011 to come up in 2012. In fairness to the political system, it will not be a matter of concern for me then. The political system has been more than fair. The parliamentary question tabled by Deputy Mansergh showed the level of people in the private sector in the quartile that were way above this. That ran to several thousand of people. I accept there are pressures and that the November figures were not as good, which is why we put it back by a year and then phased it over three years. I do not think the Government has done anything other than take a reasonable view based on an independent report.

The implementation of previous reports was phased and this one is phased. We have never had as long a gap as the one leading up to this report — all of the others were five years and I think one was six. This one will end up being 11 years in the end. From the point of view of professional politics I do not think it is an unreasonable position. Of course on the benchmarking report, the review body stated that regarding any increase given in benchmarking for politicians, officeholders could not get the same increase. What happens then is that it is netted off. The increase given in the benchmarking report is not in addition to what was given in the review body report. Officeholders will not get that increase.

I will just make one point, which is outside what was asked in fairness to Deputy Kenny. Obviously I am deeply involved in the pay talks. It is not the case that none of the issues affecting nurses was dealt with. It looked at all the grades. There are 21 grades, 17 that were listed plus four grades, where it believed the nurses had a substantive case that justified it and they have been awarded increases under the benchmarking report.

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