Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach's response to Deputy Mary Lou McDonald was just idle words because we know nothing is happening. This annual salary package is only €157,000 short of the €1 million the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, announced yesterday would be provided to assist farmers in the fodder crisis. This puts things in perspective in terms what is being done for ordinary people, whom the Taoiseach, coming from a rural constituency, should know well. We have heard today that the new governor of the Bank of Ireland, Mr. Archie Kane, will receive a package of €500,000 per annum or €10,000 per week. At the same time, the Government is trying to cut the salaries of public servants, jobseekers are being paid €188 per week, young people are being paid €100 per week, while front-line workers, including gardaí, nurses and council workers, are being penalised, threatened and bullied. Five Labour Party Deputies appealed to the Minister in the House yesterday to do something about this issue. How long more are they expected to sit idly by?

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