Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

Before dealing with the legislation, it is important to comment on the manner in which this Bill is being put through the House today. This is not the first time legislation has been rushed through the House by the Minister. This practice, which is particularly associated with the Fianna Fáil Party and the Progressive Democrats, is bad. It is also bad for the democratic process. Indeed, if the Minister were still on this side of the House, he would be hopping up and down at the prospect of such serious legislation being rushed through all Stages on a cold, wintry Tuesday night. There is no justifying this practice, yet each week legislation is brought before the House and is rushed through by guillotine or, occasionally, without any debate at all.

The new Government promised us a new dawn on many issues, including political reform, equity, transparency and accountability, but nine months later we still wait for this bright new day. Sinn Féin supported the referendum on reducing the pay of serving and future judges. It was ridiculous that members of the Judiciary were somehow the privileged few who must be protected from the financial realities facing all other citizens and public sector workers. Their role, like the role of all other public and civil servants, is to perform a specific duty to the best of their ability in the interests of the citizens. However, the salaries provided for in this Bill for the Judiciary, Government officeholders and the President are so far removed from the financial reality facing this State that it beggars belief.

We are broke. It is that simple, and the Minister knows it. Will he tell me on what planet does an insolvent country award salaries of €226,376 to a Chief Justice, €200,000 to a Taoiseach or €210,206 to a High Court judge and then promote those salary rates as a great coup for political reform? Our economy is in serious trouble. It is stagnant. Unemployment is soaring and will remain very high for the lifetime of this Government. Much of our infrastructure is not fit for purpose and our young are emigrating in their droves. Despite all of that, regularly articulated by Government, we still have an Administration that believes it is okay to award big bucks for the boys at the top while threatening cuts to child benefit and charges on our most vulnerable citizens for the right to hold a medical card.

Sinn Féin cannot support this Bill and will not support a Bill that awards extravagant salaries to judges and Government officeholders during a time of economic crisis. To be frank with the Minister, the Labour Party should not support it either, and I think he knows that. We also cannot support a Bill that serves to copper-fasten the excessive salaries of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and Government Ministers in a time of economic doom.

I urge Labour Ministers and Deputies to take a step back and think about what is happening here. We are in crisis. Families are facing yet another draconian budget and nearly half a million of our people are out of work but despite those realities the Members opposite believe it is okay to pay themselves the kind of money that for the majority of families would never be seen or earned in the good times or the bad. How can the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, justify a salary of €184,405 at this time? The salary of the Minister, Deputy Howlin, is not much less at €169,275. All the while he tells us he is making the difficult decisions in the interests of the people but, to be frank, that line is hard to tally with the big bucks awarded to judges, the Tánaiste and Labour Ministers, including the Minister, in this Bill.

The reality is that the Minister is not making the tough decisions. He is not providing leadership at a time of crisis. His Government is not stepping up and fighting the good fight in the national interest. At best, he is tinkering around the edges, and I believe the Minister knows that. High rollers paid from the public purse continue to be protected from the economic crisis by the Minister's Government. This Bill, like the ongoing payments to Anglo unguaranteed bondholder debt held by speculators, shows just how detached the political establishment is from reality. It probably best epitomises why the Labour and Fine Gael parties, like the Fianna Fáil Party before them, have failed to pull us out of this crisis.

As the economy stagnates and small business can hardly keep the door open, unemployment creeps upwards, more people live in poverty and indebted families across the State are making the stark choice this winter of buying food for the family or heating their homes. It is in that context that the Minister brings this legislation before the House.

I want to set out a number of amendments we will table to the Bill. Any future salary increase for the Judiciary, if it is to be made, should be properly brought before the Dáil and the Seanad. The Minister stated, with regard to National Treasury Management Agency workers in the Department of Finance, that there must be full transparency when it comes to the salaries of those working across the public and Civil Service. As judges are public servants, the same principle must apply to that group of workers.

Any future increase awarded to judges should not, as the Minister suggests in the Bill, have retrospective effect. It is bad enough that he would consider it appropriate to award such outrageous salaries in the first instance but to then legislate for any future increases to be paid retrospectively is unbelievable, particularly when set against this Government's punitive budget 2012 proposal.

I acknowledge President Michael D. Higgins's voluntary acceptance of a reduced salary contained in the Bill but it is my strong view that the legislation should apply a reduction to the current President. This is another example of a lack of leadership from Government. Seeking out voluntary pay reductions from serving-----

See this speech in context