Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

First, it is precisely because the Government believes there should not be two standards that it initiated the audit of section 38 and section 39 agencies to ensure they complied with public pay policy. The Government's position is that there must be compliance with public pay policy. I acknowledge, of course, the very strong feelings among many people who work in the public service about their pay levels. For that reason, when we negotiated the Haddington Road agreement last year, we ensured there would be no reduction in pay for those whose salaries were under €65,000 per annum and that where reductions were made on a progressive basis beyond that figure, there would be a way, for those earning between €65,000 and €100,000, to have that pay recovered over a period of time. That is built into the agreement.

I cannot speak about the specific individual contracts referred to in the newspaper article this morning, but if the Deputy wishes to pursue the detail with the Minister for Health, he would be happy to come to the House-----

See this speech in context