Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I wish to share my time with Deputies Ó Snodaigh and Shortall.

I welcome today's Garda fraud squad raid on Anglo Irish Bank and I hope, in view of the lapse in time since the scandal in this bank broke, that its members were not met by empty filing cabinets and deleted computer files. The bank should have been dealt with in this way long since instead of being nationalised, and the names of the Anglo Irish ten — Deputy Dooley, who is just leaving, would not agree with this phraseology — who are associated with the misconduct at that bank should be exposed, whether it is ten or 12 or 15, because I have no doubt we are looking at a number much greater than ten. They should be named and shamed, and the full facts about their shady deals should be established.

Even as the raid was going on we were reading of how a director, now resigned, of Anglo Irish Bank is still receiving fees of €28,000 of taxpayers' money annually for sitting on two State boards, Forfás and Bord na Móna. This perk from the public purse is more than many low-paid workers currently receive in salary in a year. Another now resigned Anglo Irish director — Members should remember these are both recent resignations, immediately in advance of the nationalisation proposal — receives €16,846 annually for his role as chair of the Dublin Airport Authority. In contrast, I commend the more than 100,000 people who marched on the streets of Dublin last Saturday to demand fairness and equity in the measures taken to address the greatest economic crisis we have faced since the 1930s at least. Some commentators have tried to portray that great mobilisation in a negative light. It is important that we recognise the justifiable anger that existed on the streets last Saturday. Who can blame people for their considerable pessimism given the scale of the crisis we are seeing and the prospect that it will get much worse before it gets better?

However, there is also a willingness on the part of people to play their part in putting things right and Opposition voices have reflected this over the past several weeks. Those who marched clearly stated they are prepared to pay their fair share and to work for one another, their families, their communities and this country. There is a core of true patriotism in these sentiments. That is also why there is so much deep anger. We have seen, as we never have before, nakedly exposed greed at the head of the Irish financial system and in the upper echelons of big business. What is worse, we have seen how this greed, and, to call a spade a spade, criminal greed in some cases, was facilitated or connived at by this State's political leaders and so-called regulators. As the HSE faces a shortfall of over €1 billion in 2009, we learn of the massive salaries and allowances paid at the top of the HSE, including €16,000 per month for an adviser to the HSE's chief executive, Professor Brendan Drumm.

It is a misnomer to call what we are discussing this evening a "pension levy". This is a further tax on all incomes across the board. It has to be roundly rejected. People in the public service are willing to make a further contribution, but they will not stand for the imposition of this discriminatory tax. This is in effect a tax on public service rather than public service pensions. I reject efforts to divide public sector and private sector workers. They marched side by side on the streets of Dublin last weekend and, together, they are prepared to face the challenges of restoring this economy to what we hope it to be.

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