Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

One of the experienced representatives in the nursing field, for example, has described this deal as the most regressive and draconian deal that he personally ever witnessed.

I asked the Taoiseach a simple question about the healthcare worker on €27,000 who is now being cut €50 a week whereas the exact same percentage cut is being applied to someone on between €150,000 and €185,000. That is not fair. On any analysis of a deal, people have an obligation to face up to the realities. As I stated, there are thousands of shift workers on low incomes who will suffer much more than anybody else as a result of this deal. They are earning under €65,000. I have instanced the healthcare worker. Middle-ranking nurses will face a loss of up to €80 per week, and middle-ranking gardaí as well.

It seems there is a cynicism at the heart of how this has been organised in terms of the strategy of ensuring that the Government gets the votes to get the deal over the line. The Taoiseach's comments speak to that cynicism in the sense of the divide and conquer strategy, where the approach was that the Government would ensure those who left the talks early would be punished. For example, how can the Government speak of equalising start-up pay for teachers but expect nurses to start their careers at 80% of the basic income? An Army private is losing anything up to 14% while a general is losing 5%. There are clear inequities in how this is working out for many on low incomes. The Taoiseach should look at that. There is the business of the Government doing a side deal with the fire brigade and its staff can have their double pay on a Sunday, but gardaí, notwithstanding all their difficult work, and that they put their lives on the line, it will not get the same treatment.

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