Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am taken by what the Deputy says. Needless to say, it is something I have considered. I have argued in general terms it is an increase and I know people sometimes categorise it as a wage increase. By and large, the great bulk of people who are on increments are at the lowest level, the starting grade, as I have argued. I have looked to whether I could just disaggregate that sector at the top and not pay their increments, and I have taken advice on that. I will be very honest with the House. I am advised it would take legislation analogous to the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, legislation. The two pillars on which that legislation is built are, first, that the legislation has general application and, second, that it makes a contribution to the financial recovery. The problem with targeting a couple of hundred people is that it does not have general application and the money that would be saved could not be argued to make a substantial contribution to national recovery. Nonetheless, there is an equity issue with which I fully agree. Bluntly, I was not willing to risk the entire FEMPI legislation if it could be pulled down by virtue of a case for the tiny sum of money that would be involved in the context of the big recovery programme we have under way.

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