Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This amendment is worth discussing in broader terms in respect of the health service. Figures provided by the Health Service Executive to Deputy Finian McGrath in response to a parliamentary question show that two top earners shared a pay pot of €882,694 last year. The breakdown of the earnings of the two shows that they earned €358,566 in salaries and an additional €450,000 in various allowances. The two also received an additional allowance of €74,000. It is a short reply but it sums up the point Deputy Ó Caoláin is making.

The overall figures reveal a pay bonanza for thousands of HSE high earning staff, with the majority being consultant doctors. Last year, 2,571 consultant doctors received €476 million, an average of €185,000. The figures show that one employee was in the earning band of between €300,000 and €400,000. The information shows that a further 22 staff earned between €250,000 and €300,000, receiving a total of €5.79 million in pay. The figures show that 1,034 staff earned between €150,000 and €200,000 last year. A total of 32,616 staff, or 34% of the HSE workforce, received pay of less than €30,000, while 20,000 or 21% were in receipt of between €30,000 and €40,000 per annum.

There is a great disparity between the low pay scales and the very high pay scales. The consultants are often easy targets, and the Minister did not spare them when he sat on this side of the House, but we must see a readjustment. Governments will always claim they have a progressive tax system in place but the last two budgets have been regressive. That has been acknowledged independently. The higher earners have not contributed as much in terms of tax deductions across the workforce. We can argue over the figure of €100,000 and what the figure should be, but there is certainly a big disparity between the very high earners in the HSE and those who are contributing on the lower pay rates. It should be borne in mind that even the nurse graduate scheme that was proposed provided that qualified nurses would be recruited at a lower pay scale. That was proposed by the Minister previously, so I believe there is merit in the amendment.

This is a broad debate that must take place. If we want a fairer society, as was promised, the figures outlined to Deputy Finian McGrath show that we have a long way to go to make our society fairer and more equitable, where everybody carries a fair share of the burden. Those figures are very revealing. In the context of the amendment, they outline why people at the lower pay rates feel aggrieved. I realise it is a broader debate but this amendment highlights that there is a disparity between the vast majority of the workforce in the public sector and those in the high echelons of that sector. Politicians are often criticised, often quite correctly, but there has been a big reduction in the pay scales for politicians. The Taoiseach's salary has been reduced, as have the salaries of Ministers, Ministers of State, Deputies and Senators. That is fine and we accept that we must make our contribution too, but there still appears to be a cohort that seems to be almost exempt from doing its fair share. When one sees people in the HSE still earning more than €300,000 one must question why that is the case.

See this speech in context