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

We did not have to travel far to find somebody to give the lie to the Minister's claim that the agreement is in any way fair or equitable. In fact, people came to us. A sample of the workers who are badly hit by this agreement were the firefighters who assembled outsides the gates of the Houses yesterday. Having studied the agreements, the firefighters clearly understand they will face cuts of between 8% and 10% to their take-home pay. Like others in the public service, these workers are just about getting by at present. They are just about meeting their bills, rent and mortgages and many of them have young families. The question they ask, not as commentators but as individuals who will experience the full impact of this deal, is what kind of bubble surrounds this Minister and his Government colleagues that prevents them from understanding the impact this deal will have. They reckon it will drive them into debt and many of their colleagues across the public sector will be driven into poverty. As the Minister will be aware, up to 10% of those currently in receipt of family income supports work in the public sector.

My question was about whether the Minister was going to protect low- and middle-income workers. The answer is that he did not protect them. He claimed, disingenuously, that the only pay cuts were for those earning in excess of €65,000. He might play with words but he knows full well that workers across the spectrum are going to experience real and substantial cuts to their wages. Nurses who earn €35,000 or €40,000 are looking at cuts of 8%. I ask him not to play the game of make-believe that only a certain section will experience the cuts.

I share the public frustration that certain people in the public service are overpaid and over-pensioned. There is no debate about that. These individuals include Ministers and Secretaries General. There are 6,000 of them across the system. The demand for fairness and reining in the pay bill should have been directed at that set of people. It is not fair or sustainable to ask the State to pay multiples of a fair salary to senior public officials, but the Minister was not prepared to go after them.

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