Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I join the Tánaiste and Deputy Kenny in paying tribute to the late Pádraig MacKernan for his outstanding work as Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs and his work as an ambassador and diplomat for this country over many years. I sympathise with his family and friends.

Yesterday, we heard the stories of some of the low-paid public servants and about how they are trying to get by following the unfair pay cuts imposed on them by Fianna Fáil and the Green Party in the recent budget. We heard the story, for example, of Mary Duffy who is a clerical officer in the Department of Education and Science in Tullamore. Her husband has lost his job and his jobseeker's benefit has now run out. We heard how that family is now trying to get by on Mary's pay of €451 per week and how they had to hand back the key of their house. They are now living in rented accommodation and paying a rent of €625 per month. As a result of the pension levy which was imposed last year and the cut in pay which was imposed by the budget, Mary's pay has been cut by €77 per week. Meanwhile, the Government did a sweetheart deal for some of the more senior officers of Mary's Department and other Departments, people who are paid six or seven times what she is paid.

Mary Duffy and her colleagues have been subject for a year or more to a vulgar campaign of abuse demeaning the work they do and demoralising those who do it.

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