Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I want now to underline some of the points made by Government speakers. One point is the vital role played by Ministers of State in many different Departments. In terms of my work, the amount of responsibility is immense. The workload is ten times greater than the workload of a backbencher. These are facts. People tell me on a daily basis that they would not take on my job for all the tea in China. Ministers of State do valuable and important work. In fairness, Government and Opposition speakers were united in saying the vast majority of Ministers and Ministers of State are doing extremely valuable work. Members will see from many of the contributions made during the past two days that this is the case.

There are reforms coming down the line in the Seanad and through the Oireachtas Commission. Equally, changes have taken place recently. Last year, we as Ministers and Ministers of State voluntarily undertook a cut in salary. We, too, are affected by the pension levy. If people require further demonstration that Ministers and Ministers of State are willing to lead, share the pain and make sacrifices, we will do that. Ultimately, we must ask whether the demonstration effect has been successful thus far.

See this speech in context