Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

The financial emergency measures in the public interest will enshrine these pay cut proposals from the Government. Can I put it to the Minister that it is misnamed legislation? The public interest suggests the majority interest of ordinary people but this is in the interest of continuing the bailout of bankers and bondholders at the expense of public sector workers and continuing the flow of money to the former. Has the Minister reflected on the bullying and the badgering he has engaged in over the past two months? He has threatened public sector workers that, unless they swallow these cuts, they would be savagely implemented anyway. Following the clear rejection of these proposals, he continued with this, suffering from what I call the Lisbon treaty syndrome where the Government does not accept a democratic outcome but threatens awful repercussions.

Will the Minister agree there is an alternative of putting a progressive tax on the 5% of top earners, introducing a financial transaction tax and a wealth tax? From these, he could get far more than the €1 billion he is now trying to rob from low and middle-income workers in various ways.

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