Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

I support reducing it and that is why I am raising the issue now. Members of the United Left Alliance have volunteered to take only the average industrial wage and the rest of the money goes into the campaigns, issues and organisations with which we are involved. We did not make this decision because we are saints or martyrs but because putting politicians in the same situation as the majority is the best way to make them truly representative of society. It puts them in a position in which the decisions they make on increasing taxes or cutting pay will affect them as well as others. Politicians would thus have a vested interest in championing the interest of the majority rather than the current situation, where their pay is closer to the wealthier sections of society and, despite the best intentions that may exist in the heads of individual public representatives, their material reality puts them out of touch with ordinary working people.

This proposal is more relevant than ever at a time when savage austerity is being imposed on ordinary working families and the poorest and most vulnerable sections of society. The austerity measures mean they are struggling to make ends meet and are threatened with an impossible financial burden. Politicians would think twice about the policies of austerity and cutbacks if they were in the same financial boat. Although I doubt the majority of Members of this House would consider following the example of the United Left Alliance of reducing salaries to the average industrial wage, the salaries of Deputies, Ministers and the Taoiseach are high compared to our European counterparts or most other public representatives elsewhere in the world. We should consider reducing politicians' pay by a substantial amount in order that it is more in line with that of ordinary people in our society.

I would counterpose that proposal with the Government's proposal to reduce the number of Deputies. As Deputy Pringle pointed out yesterday, parliamentary representation in Ireland is on a par other European countries. In other words, the number of public representatives per head of population is the same as most European countries. The notion that we have too many is not the problem and, therefore, reducing the number of Deputies is not the way forward. It would be better to cut pay and put us in the same material position as those we represent rather than cut the number of Members.

I congratulate the Government on moving to abolish the Seanad. That would be a positive move because it is an elitist institution. The notion that we would have a second tier of government based on an elitist electorate with the majority of our society excluded from voting is obnoxious to any democratic sentiment or impulse. The abolition of the Seanad is welcome and long overdue. However, while this would be a positive move, we need other democratic tiers to oversee the Dáil. This also relates in a way to local government. Most people accept powers must be devolved, whenever possible, to the lowest level of society in order that ordinary citizens can participate as much as possible in decisions affecting them and we can move away from a centralised political system.

I propose that we seek to develop a second tier of democracy, different from the Seanad, which is genuinely representative of all sectors of society. Groups such as We the Citizens point in this direction with its proposals for citizen assemblies. However, we could formalise and institutionalise that notion with citizen assemblies taking place locally and having representatives from all sectors of the community, including trades unions, students, workplaces, young people, pensioners and people with disabilities. They could, in turn, elect people to higher bodies at regional and national level. Representatives of those assemblies would not be professional politicians but they would be directly accountable and recallable.

There would not be, therefore, set terms of four or five years where they could get elected on the basis of saying one thing and then implementing or pursuing different policies once they were elected regardless of what they said to people when they were seeking their votes. The fact that politicians will say one thing at election time to secure votes and, shortly afterwards, do things differently once they are in office is a sore point for people. We need a mechanism of accountability and recallability for both representatives of citizen assemblies and sectoral-based assemblies at local, regional and national level and Oireachtas Members. We should be subject to the same terms if we fail to implement the promises on which we were elected.

While all the proposals made by the Government, myself and others during this week's Private Member's business and this debate could be positive, they are meaningless in the context of the bigger issue facing the country. Shifting deck chairs on the Titanic comes to mind. By signing up to the IMF-EU package, we have handed over our democracy. No matter what is debated in the House or any other institution we seek to create, it will be undermined and negated by the fact the EU and the IMF are dictating policy to the Government to pay back the bankers and speculators who caused the economy to crash. Although I expect the call will fall on deaf ears, even at this stage I urge the Government to think again about tying us into a deal that is fundamentally undermining and destroying our democracy by handing control of policy and economic policy, in particular, over to people representing bankers and speculators rather than the ordinary citizens of this country.

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