Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

This would have shown leadership in an international sense. One of the big talking points internationally is how we can afford to pay our Taoiseach and Ministers so much money. There are many cartoons of Ireland depicting the Taoiseach being paid the same amount of money as leaders of some of the largest, most populated and wealthy countries in the world.

The Labour Party supports the proposed reductions in Deputies' pay and long service allowances and so on. Perhaps the Taoiseach will state the reason the Minister for Finance turned a blind eye to the €45,000 allowance paid annually, tax free, to Independent Members of the Dáil-----

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