Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State's comments on cutting one's cloth according to one's measure and all the rest would be fair if that was levied equally across the system. However, it is not and I will give the Minister of State an example. When a clinical director who is a consultant takes up a post, he or she gets an additional allowance of €46,000, which is more than the equivalent of two nursing salaries under the so-called graduate scheme. The Minister of State correctly stated that the vast majority of public and civil servants would only dream of earning €100,000 in any given year, but as he quite correctly mentioned, there are those 6,000 people at the top. As the Government negotiates this new agreement to find €1.4 billion in savings, where will it come from? Is the treatment being meted out at present to graduate nurses and midwives a forecast of what is to come for other jobs and professions? In the current economic climate, which the Minister of State has acknowledged, to brag about a pay cap of €200,000 is sick.

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