Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

-----at a time when he is reviewing premium payments for other workers who are on far lower wages than the Ministers of State concerned.

I find the Minister's answer unsatisfactory. On the question of whether the allowances and premia are part of core pay, he stated "Yes" and "No". On the question of whether new entrants alone will be affected, he stated "Yes" and "No". The Minister undertook the review exercise not having consulted a broad range of people, including the unions. Perhaps the Department is still a little at sea in terms of processing. The Minister referred to tight resources and receiving business cases. Is this not a very messy response that he has given? Is it not a very messy process? Workers and their representative bodies would prefer a much more clear-cut answer in respect of whether and allowances constitute core pay. "Yes but no" is not a satisfactory answer. On the fundamental question of whether new entrants or workers across the board will be affected, I would have expected the Minister to have been in a position to answer in a much more straightforward way.

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