Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

The Tánaiste's Government is the one that broke its own guidelines on capping pay for its special advisers. That is on the record. His Government still allows senior civil servants to walk away with bonanza pension pots. His Government, and he in particular, gets very rattled at the very prospect that a senior civil servant might be called to account in this Dáil. He claims his nominee remains the Government's nominee. That is not a credible position given the view taken by the budgetary committee in the European Parliament. More important, it is not a credible position on the part of a Government that proposes to introduce, in the short term, swingeing cuts affecting people on low and middle incomes.

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