Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I apologise. He said he would not lead the Green Party and he stood by that decision. However, I cannot say the same for his senior colleagues. They have gone into Government and they have become the new green, the republican green, and, in effect, they have been consumed by the Fianna Fáil Party. This is disappointing, considering the Minister of State, Deputy Sargent's stance.

Given that there are so many Ministers, the role of a Minister has been devalued. Ministers show up for everything. No matter what is happening anywhere in the country, there is a Minister capable of opening just about anything. If an envelope dropped on the floor, a Minister of State would have it opened before it even hit the ground. I remember there used to be a big to-do if a Minister visited a constituency but there is no to-do now because there are so many Ministers falling over each other to put a hand on a scissors to open bits and pieces.

It should be a privilege to be the chairman of an Oireachtas committee and there should not be a €20,000 payment. Being a Chairman is a halfway house between being a backbencher and a Minister of State. A Deputy is paid €100,000 while a chairman is paid an allowance of an extra €20,000 and a Minister of State is paid €150,000. Those of us on the backbenches who try to get our message across are not given the same coverage as a Minister of State or a senior Minister and neither are we given the same coverage as the chairman of a committee. Being appointed a chairman should be regarded as a privilege and Members should be glad to have the opportunity.

I refer to the anger in the country. I am out and about knocking on doors on behalf of European and local election candidates. At every door, people are angry not because hard decisions have been made, but because unfair decisions have been made. The Government does not seem to get that or understand it. Members on the other side of the House say that people are angry because of the hard decisions but they are mistaken; they are angry because the Government has not been fair or reasonable. The reason the Government has neither been fair nor reasonable is because it is completely out of touch.

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