Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

I second the amendment. I will simply reiterate the point made by Deputy McDonald. People are scandalised by top civil servants and politicians walking away with obscene pension pots when the rest of the country is being crucified by austerity and cuts. It is particularly galling, as the Minister will be aware, that some of the people whom many would hold responsible for the current economic crisis are walking away with obscene pension pots while ordinary people are left to pick up the tab for the reckless behaviour that took place. Sinn Féin's proposal to cap pension entitlements at €60,000 per year is very reasonable.

The Minister has indicated that the problem with this is technical in nature, that is, in terms of what €60,000 will mean a few years hence. I do not accept that as a reason to oppose the amendment. The Minister can always adjust the figure upwards as time goes on. It would be a relatively easy thing to do. The Minister has given himself discretion in other matters relating to the new scheme so I do not see why the figure could not be updated as time passes. It would go some way to showing a serious commitment on the part of the Government to do something about these enormous pension pots of top public servants. In addition, although it is not directly related to the amendment, I do not accept that we cannot do this to some of the people who have walked away because there are other ways of doing it if there is a will. The tax system could be used to go after some of the enormous pension pots that some people have walked away with if there was a will to do so.

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