Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

No. The Minister can be disingenuous and wilfully misunderstand if he likes, but the message is quite simple and public servants understand it. If ultimately public sector wages must fall it should only be in the context of protections for those who get pushed into poverty and arrears. It is unreasonable in my opinion to ask people to take cuts to their pay when there is so much waste which could be gone after first.

The Minister keeps mentioning that 87% of the public sector earns less than €65,000 and will not be hit. Many of them will be hit. The Garda Representative Association has calculated that a garda on €35,000 will take a hit of several thousand euro because of the changes to premium payments.

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