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

I welcome Deputy Keating's question. He is pointing to an important issue - the obscene salaries of many people in the top echelons of the civil and public service, who are paid with public money. I do not know if he agrees with me when I suggest his proposal could be extended to cover the obscene salaries at the top of the corporate and private sectors. The Minister and the Government should explain why some sort of super-wealth tax cannot be imposed on people at the top of the public and private sectors at a time when many people are being slaughtered with the universal social charge and various cuts and attacks on their incomes. We need to ensure high earners take some of the pain from people who simply cannot afford it.

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