Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I have a few questions arising from the decision not to implement the recommendations and to review them again in 2010. Are there pension implications arising from that decision? Does the Taoiseach have an estimate of the number of persons covered by the review body who are likely to retire between now and the review date in 2010? Is it the intention of the Taoiseach to continue the review body mechanism as the means by which pay is determined for the top end of the public service? Does the Taoiseach accept that the idea of comparison to the private sector is a false comparison?

In the seven year period leading up to this review, top executive salaries in the private sector have gone mad. Chief executives of banks and major companies pay themselves in millions while their employees are on the minimum wage. A major gulf has developed in pay culture in the private sector, which is unprecedented. Over the past decade in the private sector, here and worldwide including the United States, there is the idea that chief executives and top executives of private sector companies are so wonderful that they pay themselves in millions while they pay many of their employees the minimum wage. It is nonsense for the public sector to replicate that or make comparisons based on it. The issue that must be addressed is the major gulf in earnings between those at the top end and those toiling at ground level.

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