Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

They drove the economy into the ground. Some people who have the neck to put their names to this motion were members of that party when they did it, although I do not take from the genuine intentions of Deputy Seamus Healy and others. I know they are genuine.

There is, however, one signatory to this piece of political theatre whom I have never heard raise the issue of the retention of basic social welfare rates. In his weekly column for a right-wing newspaper, I have never seen him mention the household benefits package and how important it is to pensioners the length and breadth of the country, how the Administration exempted 330,000 people from the universal social charge or how the Government, in its first budget, restored the minimum wage. All of that is a foreign archaic language to those who were engaged in the adulation of the person who is most associated with Anglo Irish Bank that contributed to the collapse of the economy. They have a damned neck to put their names to the motion.

Let us look at what the Government has done since it came to office. The day the Cabinet was formed, on 11 March last year, it abolished State cars for Ministers. It sickens me to think the people who visited destruction on the economy were driven around in top-of-the-range black Mercedes cars. The Government reduced Ministers' pay and the salaries of the Taoiseach and Tánaiste. The Government abolished the allowance to vice chairmen of committees. That was €10,000 tax free, which was a legacy of the Bertie Ahern years. Another signatory could explain what went on during those years, because he went into the Tá lobby night after night to support him. The Government abolished the committee convenors and committee whips allowance. It halved the chairman's allowance and taxed and subjected the balance to the universal social charge, PRSI and a special pension subscription. The Government also capped the pay of CEOs in the public sector and took a range of measures, not least to hold a referendum to reduce the pay of members of the Judiciary. Some Members opposite who have signed the motion voted against that measure.

The Fianna Fáil and Green parties and some of their former fans, who did not stick around long enough to sign the party pledge because they knew they would not get back into the Dáil, visited a mess on Irish people and on Irish society. They brought in the EU, the IMF and the ECB. Now they are running around with this motion. If it were not so serious it would be laughable. Why do they not begin by handing back their €40,000? Every single one of them gets €40,000 tax free and they come in here lecturing us about those who are on social welfare. They do not mean it because they do not give a damn.

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