Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I am addressing amendment No. 14, in particular. If the House goes full term on this occasion, to 2012, I might begin to get my head around how these amendments are measured or deemed to be in or out. Amendment No. 12 has been ruled out of order, although it appears that it would be of substantial benefit, rather than a cost to the State. In it I was trying to deal with regulations to cap senior banking executives' pay to a level approximately equivalent to that of a Government Minister. I was also trying to allow the Minister to make regulations governing a collection of bonuses paid to senior banking executives in each of the last three years. We would have had great fun going after this, but it should at least have been attempted. I also sought to deal with capping senior executives' pay in some State bodies. I alluded to this matter and will not hold up the business of the House at length. In some cases CEOs of State bodies have received in excess of €500,000. Will the Minister assure me that they are worth it and deserve it? However, I remain to be convinced that such pay levels are warranted. When we measure the pay of hospital consultants against those of their European counterparts, we find that in Britain they earn about £70,000 per annum and €110,000 per annum in France. The highest sum paid is in the Netherlands where it goes up to about €120,000. There is a technical error in the amendment. I meant to put the figure at more than €70,000 for hospital consultants, but not much more — about €120,000 would be the absolute maximum, in line with what is paid in many European Union member states.

The whole thrust of everything the Government does is to hammer low and middle income families at every opportunity, while protecting and enhancing the status of those on significant incomes, including the Judiciary. Every time we debate any such Government legislation it beggars belief.

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