Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for mentioning that issue. The original Croke Park agreement allows for average payroll savings of only 1% for each of the next couple of years, which is quite modest. I note that the Minister has come to that conclusion himself.

The Minister did not mention allowances. Has he moved away from that or has he found the issue to be more complicated than he originally thought? I wish him more success than he had with his original proposal to deal with allowances.

Public servants with salaries of more than €100,000 should not receive increases in salary. The concept of someone who is earning more than €100,000 getting a pay rise next year, even if it is called an increment, is immoral and should not be tolerated. The people of Ireland will not tolerate it. It might be claimed that increments are part of core pay, but they are not specifically mentioned in the Croke Park agreement and the matter is open for discussion. Nobody could countenance increases in pay next year, by way of increment, for the highest paid public servants. That has to stop.

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