Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for not being in the Chamber when the Minister spoke. I have read his speech. Speed-reading is one of my varied talents. As I listened to Deputy Fleming, I almost mistook him for a Government Deputy. He announced that the emergency is over and almost lauded the Minister for his efforts in that regard. It seems that Deputy Fleming is labouring under the misapprehension that there are people out there, or even in here, who expect that Deputies, Ministers or the Taoiseach "should work for nothing". I would like to set the record straight by assuring the Deputy that it is not the case that there are people who feel that way. As Deputies are aware, in the course of this Dáil I have had many long debates with the Minister about the excessive pay that is received by a small minority of people within the public service and the Civil Service. It has never been my position, or Sinn Féin's position, to demand that people "should work for nothing". Slavery is not something we recommend. We have insisted on pay moderation and on a recognition that a small minority of people within the system are overpaid. Even with the FEMPI cuts taking effect, some of the individuals in question are still overpaid in our estimation. If the Government and the Oireachtas in its entirety are to have any credibility, we have to recognise that such a yawning gap between the pay of those at the bottom and those at the top within the public sector cannot be tolerated. If we do not address the gap between the workers in the private and public sectors who are struggling and the tiny number of people at the top, we cannot imagine that our voices will carry any weight in the public domain. I have just been at a meeting in my neighbourhood in Cabra. We were discussing the budget. I can tell the Minister that it has not gone down terribly well.

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