Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

——and the rules have not worked out as good this time as they did the last time. That is the position and if affects politicians and others. As TDs we decided to link ourselves to the principal officer grade and that does not show a 1.9% increase this time for most of the Members of the Oireachtas. That is the system that is in operation and it is considered to be a far fairer and better system.

Deputy Gilmore is correct on one point in that the top quartile in the private sector earns very large and incredible increases in pay. The Department of Finance reply to a question from Deputy Mansergh shows that several thousands of people are on enormous incomes. However, the benchmarking review body only deals with the bottom quartile, the bottom 15%, and it then discounts the pension. I do not think the body is being over-generous to the vast majority of public servants in the way it makes its calculations.

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