Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

Over the last six or eight months the decision was made to establish my Department, followed by decisions on the economic management council, bank recapitalisation issues, the comprehensive review of expenditure and the public sector reform agenda, which we will talk about in other questions. I need help as well as the public service help I have, as does every other Cabinet Minister. We need to have people there for support and they must be people of calibre. Of course one could get people to work for less, but it is hard to ask individuals to leave jobs that are better remunerated, full-time and pensionable - in certain cases I could mention - with a lot less stress and fewer hours, to come and work for a period of time in the public service. We might get people to do it, but Ministers need to be able to select people they know they can work with, who will do the job for them. By and large, I do not begrudge reasonable remuneration packages for those people, and we should defend them. If the Deputy thinks some of them are excessive-----

See this speech in context