Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

We were told over and over again that when the economic downturn came there would be a soft landing. Now we are being told that we are all in it together. Neither statement is true. It was a crash landing with debris scattered all over the place and nobody who has the responsibility for managing it is ready to step up to the plate and take on that responsibility. There is nobody to tidy up the mess. We are not all in it together, because if we were, the pain would be shared evenly among those who could best carry it and it would not be off-loaded selectively on to the lowest earners. Low paid public servants have been selected for special treatment. There is no sign of bankers handing back their golden handshakes and taking a significant drop in their millions in salaries or bonuses or of developers being called to heel to pay their share. Instead, modestly paid jobs in the private sectors are being shed and the lowest paid public servants are carrying a disproportionate share of the burden in the form of pension levy or, as it should be more properly called, a pay cut.

Over the past while, the Government and sections of the media have orchestrated an insidious campaign to demonise the public sector. Government backbenchers and Ministers together with business leaders and media commentators tripped over themselves to talk about plump public sector hens with Rolls Royce pensions, which is nonsense. They are living in a parallel universe if they think the levy on the table is fair to the lowest paid. Will they explain to my constituent who has worked out a budget arising from the so-called pension levy where she will find the missing €300 per month for her food, mortgage or heating bills? Will they tell the ambulance workers who wear stab proof vests as they go to work that they are overpaid? Community welfare officers are working overtime for free as they attempt to clear the backlog of cases. Will they be told they are lazy and do no work? What about telling the community garda who has no prospect of promotion for years or the teacher with a class of 30 or more students that they will have a Rolls Royce pension? The only people who will have Rolls Royce pensions are the bankers, builders and business people who creamed it during the boom.

Like every other Member, I have received hundreds of e-mails, telephone calls and representations at my constituency clinics from worried, desperate and angry people. Three issues have arisen during all these contacts, the first of which is equality. Despite the Government's bleating, the levy is unequal. A graph highlights that those on low and middle incomes are taxed disproportionately. A person earning €120,000 annually, for example, only pays 3% more than someone earning €30,000 a year. How is this equitable? As the levy stands, people who will not receive a pension will still be levied while judges, for example, will be exempt.

The second issue is justice. Most of the e-mails I received echo the following sentiment: "I am willing to pay my fair share but when I've seen the fat cats get away with driving the Irish economy into a black hole, then why should I pay?" Despite having done serious and possible irreparable damage to the banking system, no one has been held to account. The Government guaranteed the Irish banking system in September and those in charged have only resigned in dribs and drabs instead of what one would expect, which is mass resignations. A Government with a true understanding of the depth of public anger would surely have insisted on this. Where is the justice in a regulator who benignly oversaw what one commentator called "fraud" receiving a pay-off of almost €600,000? These high earners are detached from the society in which the rest of us live. One banker was happy to tell the Government to tax child benefit while he was concealing loans while another attempted to elicit sympathy for the fact that his earnings would be under €2 million this year.

The third issue is poverty. The levy reduces wages at the lowest level to such an extent that it may act as a disincentive to work and lead people into a welfare trap. As one constituent put it, "Financially I would be better off on the live register where I would qualify for health and income supplements". Since it has been established that every extra person on the live register costs the State approximately €20,000 per annum, why would the Government further disincentivise work?" We need as many people as possible contributing to the economy and the way the levy is structured will force workers on to the live register.

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