Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

It was one of these well kept secrets in the bowels of the Civil Service, which never worked its way up to the Minister. I am surprised it flew so well under the radar and it never came across the desk of those Ministers during that period.

During the passage of the legislation, various amendments to cut the pay of senior officials in the public service and semi-State companies were voted down by the Government. We wanted to set an upper limit of €200,000 for public servants. The Minister gave us various explanation as to why he could not do this. He said it could be subject to legal challenge and he could not isolate a small group of people, yet he is doing just that in this legislation, although he is not going as far as Deputy McDonald wishes. He is well able to isolate a few people in this amendment.

With regard to fairness, which was a theme of Deputy McDonald's contribution, why can the Minister not pass a law to rule out high salaries for the handful of chief executive officers in semi-State companies and to limit the highest salary in the public service at €200,000? This would affect a few hundred public servants, of whom 99 work in the education sector alone. The Minister would do a tremendous service to the people and the political system if he could explain why he will not do that.

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