Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Has the Minister any appreciation of the fact that the majority of civil servants earn under €50,000 a year? Those civil servants are facing a cut of approximately 5% under the emergency measures. Civil servants, however, at the top of the scale, some 700, in the Minister's Department, the Health Service Executive and other various public bodies are taking a cut of only 3%. If the Minister wanted to make special provisions for senior management and assistant secretaries, why did he not take the honest course and announce it on budget day? Instead, it was done by a sleight of hand which has resulted in disaffection among low-paid civil servants.

The Minister spoke about pensions in his earlier reply to Deputy Bruton. Many low-paid public servants relied on quantities of overtime to top up their salaries but this has been either lost or cut severely. There has been no alteration in the rest of their pay reduction to reflect that they relied on a percentage of overtime. However, the Minister did recognise this for the bonuses of the higher paid.

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