Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill, which paves the way for the future implementation of pay cuts for an exclusive elite. Sinn Féin supports the Bill. It is ironic, however, that if judges had taken the opportunity to embrace not only the letter of their own voluntary levy scheme, but also its spirit, we might never have reached this point. That episode brought shame on them and their profession and in itself tells a story.

While the average industrial wage in this State is some €35,000, judges can expect to earn multiples of that, anywhere between €147,000 and €295,000. At the same time, more than 440,000 people are signing on the dole and many more do not even qualify for that benefit. Untold hardship is being visited upon ordinary people throughout the country as a result of cuts, cuts and more cuts, with no end in sight. Through all of this recent hardship judges remained, and in many respects, regardless of the outworkings of this legislation and the referendum in October, will remain, sheltered and protected from such realities. So too will their colleagues in the upper echelons of the civil and public service. Through this saga and other events in recent weeks, we have had a very public display of the privileged and protected realms in which some people continue to live in this State.

The reality for the vast majority of people in Ireland today is one of getting by. The programme of austerity scripted by the EU and IMF and implemented diligently, initially by Fianna Fáil and the Green Party and subsequently by Fine Gael and the Labour Party, has resulted in devastating changes for ordinary people. People are asking themselves whether they can afford their mortgage repayment from month to month, their children's ever-increasing back to school fees or, even worse, food, heat and electricity for themselves and their families. Many workers wonder whether they will still have a job next week or next month. This is a frighteningly common reality for many vulnerable people. Meanwhile, members of the well-heeled, well-connected and well-protected sectors of Irish society remain immune and face no such difficulties. They certainly do not have to worry about providing the basics for themselves and their families, including food, housing, health and education. They might have to worry - if that is the correct word - about the cost of running three houses and two cars or paying private education fees.

In this economic climate, such privileges arise, at least to some degree, at the expense of everyone else. This sheltered elite remains as such because consecutive Governments, including the current one, have failed to confront it. The obscene figures which have emerged over recent weeks are further evidence of the continuing practice of excessive pay and privileges, including severance and pension provisions, for senior members of the civil and public service. This must be tackled head on. The Government cannot continue to hide behind the excuse of contracts or precedent.

The hundreds of thousands of people on the live register, as well as all of those who have suffered cuts to welfare, pensions and take-home pay, together with the hundreds of thousands who have been forced to emigrate must have thought they were hearing things last week when it was revealed that the recently retired Secretary General at the Department of the Taoiseach, Mr. Dermot McCarthy, received an incredible €713,000 pension pay-off on top of his annual pension of €142,000. This is the same Secretary General who was a member of the Top Level Appointments Committee that appointed senior civil servants on behalf of the State and, according to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, agreed their remuneration packages, again on behalf of the Government. Consecutive Governments obviously believed they were worth it. They facilitated such behaviour by endorsing, signing off on, rubber-stamping and giving legal effect to it. What one permits, one promotes.

As part of his pension pay off, Mr. McCarthy received a special severance gratuity payment of €142,670. The Superannuation and Pensions Act 1963 states that the Minister, if in his discretion he so thinks proper, can grant such a payment to a civil servant. This payment, which is clearly defined in section 7 of the Superannuation and Pension Act 1963 as being a special severance gratuity, could only have been made to Mr. McCarthy on the instruction of the Ministers for Finance or Public Expenditure and Reform. The Minister, Deputy Howlin, might have considered how many special needs assistants might be employed for that money.

There have been reports in the media that Mr. McCarthy is being considered as the next ambassador to the Vatican. If this appointment comes to pass, it will be an even greater slap in the face to struggling families and the unemployed. The mere suggestion that any Government Minister would deem it appropriate to give such a high paid job to a retired civil servant in receipt of a €713,000 lump sum pension pay-off is completely inappropriate and reeks of the worst kind of cronyism. Recent media coverage gave even further insight into the culture of self-congratulation at the upper levels of the public and Civil Service with the disclosure that 21 senior civil servants who retired during the past four years received lump sums of between €444,000 and €570,000.

A further 94 retired officials have received lump sums of €225,000. The retired officials also receive annual pensions of between €75,000 and €142,000, at a total cost to the taxpayer of almost €10 million every year. These are inordinate figures.

In a similar vein, Irish hospital consultants earn a basic €250,000 per annum for a nominal 33-hour-week. While this may be Mickey Mouse money to some, it is not so to those of us living in the real world. It has been reported that some consultants spend 40% of their working time on private practice, some of which is being reimbursed by the National Treatment Purchase Fund. This is another example of gross excess and a failure to challenge an already privileged group. Given the extreme difficulties Government cutbacks are having on ordinary people, it is extraordinary that such practices continue unabated.

The Government has promised legislation to deal with excessive senior public sector pensions and to end the practice of added years, but these changes look likely to apply only to new entrants. This is unacceptable. Methods must be found to tackle the excessively high pension arrangements for existing public and Civil Service top dogs. Increasing the tax rate applied to the balance of lump sum pay-offs is just one option.

Sinn Féin has called and continues to call for the capping of all public sector pay at €100,000. Similarly, pension pots should be reduced for senior public servants. I welcome this Bill in its attempt to reduce the pay of judges in line with others in the public service. I would like to see others in the public service challenged in a similar vein. I commend the Bill to the House.

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