Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)

It is unfair that the extremely higher-paid public servants should have a smaller reduction in their wages and salaries than the lower-paid civil servants. This is a fact of life. It was deceptive of the Minister, on behalf of the Government, to announce the U-turn on 23 December, two weeks after the budget when he believed nobody would notice and that he would get away with it. The Dáil was in recess and we could do nothing about it at the time. Perhaps the announcement was to allow for a Christmas bonus for higher-paid civil servants – I do not know.

The policy of Fine Gael is that those on wages and salaries up to €30,000 should be exempt from the levy. Now the Government has singled out the top 650 higher salary earners in the public service for special treatment. How can it justify its decision to cut the pay of the lower-paid public servants more, in percentage terms, than the pay of higher-paid civil servants, some of whom earn €100,000, €200,000 or €400,000 per year?

The public was ready at the time of the budget to accept measures necessary to correct the damage to our economy caused by the current and past Fianna Fáil-led Governments, but only if there had been fairness all round. Fairness was the key to gaining public acceptance. The December budget announced a 12% pay cut for top earners and an 8% cut for middle and second-level earners, as recommended by the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector in Report No. 44. The supposed cutback in pay for higher-paid personnel was used in the budget to try to justify a pay cut of 5% to 8% for those on middle incomes and a 5% pay cut for those earning less than €30,000. Fine Gael would exempt the latter.

The Minister, on the day before Christmas Eve, released a circular announcing the scaling back of pay cuts to an average of 3% for assistant secretaries, deputy secretaries, local authority and health board executives and other higher-paid individuals. This has led to great hardship for the lower paid and resentment over the fact that their higher paid bosses have been subject to a much lower cut than them. It has led to bad public relations in those public bodies where the staff have received pay cuts greater than those of their managers.

I received a letter today from a constituent, a public sector administrator on a moderate salary working in Galway. She stated her income has been cut by 15% in the past nine months and that the pay cuts are grossly unfair and place an inordinate burden on low-income and middle-income public servants. She said the cost of diesel, doctors and dentists has greatly penalised people in her position in the past year and that she is at her wit's end. Many of us have received similar letters, including Government Members.

Working-class families and lower-paid workers with two or three children must regularly visit the doctor or dentist. They are now hard pressed to afford this given the budgetary cutbacks that have affected them. Those families just do not know where to turn. Young children must be brought to the dentist or doctor on many occasions. The professional fees now charged are far in excess of those being charged a few years ago. I do not know what the Government intends to do or can do to control professional fees. The fees, as they stand, are crucifying hard-pressed families.

Fianna Fáil and Green Party Members know what they did was wrong. The parties' backbenchers know this and are being reminded of it in their constituencies. Their consciences are telling them to vote against the cuts. They will have an opportunity to do so tomorrow night in this House. Deputy Ring challenged Deputy Mattie McGrath, who said he would vote against this Bill, to do so. The Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Mansergh, who has now left the Chamber and who is from Deputy McGrath's constituency, smiled wryly at the idea. I do not know whether he knows something we do not. Perhaps Deputy Mattie McGrath will vote for the Fine Gael motion on this occasion. He promised he would do so in regard to the NAMA Bill and the legislation to reduce the level of alcohol allowed to drivers. I do not know where he was when those votes took place but he certainly did not vote against the Bills in spite of all his wild talk on the night.

The wage cut for mangers and staff in high-paid positions has been reduced to one of 3%. Those are the people who are managing the front-line services that have been cut back seriously. The carer's allowance, which benefits those caring in their own homes for 24 hours per day, has been cut and, in many cases, home help has been reduced from nine hours to six hours. In one case I know, the home help for a doubly incontinent person has been cut from six hours to three hours. We will have many cutbacks to front-line services but the higher-paid managers, whom the Government wants to protect, have guaranteed jobs. They are using cuts to front-line services to save money to allow them hold on to their own positions and salaries. The Government has now given them another bonus in that it is to cut their pay by only 3% rather than 12%, as indicated in the budget two weeks before Christmas.

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