Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

There the Taoiseach goes again. It happens on his watch but he is not accountable for it. He knows as well as I that under the pensions legislation it is at the discretion of Government to sign off on added years of service. He knows full well that had he wished to stop that payment to the outgoing Secretary General, he could have done so. The position is the same with regard to the outrageous payments to county and city managers to which I refer. The only conclusion at which we can arrive is that despite the rhetoric from him and his colleagues in Fine Gael and the Labour Party with regard to reform and change, they are, in fact, not serious about these matters. They will hammer clerical officers and ordinary working people. However, like their predecessors, they are unable and unwilling to go after those in the upper echelons of the public and civil service. They have made that abundantly clear. Shame on the Taoiseach and the Government - particularly as they are cooking up massive cutbacks that will hurt ordinary people - for being so coy and duplicitous in respect of the those in the upper echelons of the public and civil service. The Taoiseach should make a commitment to the House that no county or city manager will walk away with a payment of €74,000. He should not sell us that it is Fianna Fáil's fault. The Taoiseach is in charge now.

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