Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I listened to the Minister's speech earlier. He implied that those of us looking to completely abolish FEMPI legislation essentially have no plan to finance such a move. He implied that we were reckless and that the calls amounted to the politics of permanent protest and so on.

First of all, let me state what we are talking about. We are talking about money that was stolen, mostly from low-paid public sector workers. I will underline the point that they were mostly low paid. In the disgusting demonisation and witch hunt that occurred at the time this legislation was brought in, public sector workers were made out to be public enemy No. 1 and the view was that they deserved to have their pay slashed. That was one narrative at the time. They were robbed with this narrative ringing in their ears. They were blamed for an economic crisis they had not created. It had been created by bankers and developers and the two major political parties in this State who cheered on those interests for many years.

The scale of the robbery was extraordinary. I will underline the point that the majority of these workers were underpaid. Fully 83% of public sector workers earn less than €60,000. Indeed, the vast majority earn less than €40,000. The scale of the robbery was extraordinary. If a worker earned €30,000 in 2009, his income dropped to €28,500 as a result of FEMPI legislation. Therefore, between 2009 and 2015 such a worker would have lost €16,000 or that amount was stolen from him. If a worker earned €40,000 in 2009, that worker had €27,000 taken off him cumulatively in subsequent years. If a worker earned €50,000, he had €38,000 taken off him in those years and so on.

They have been robbed since 2010. Under the Government's Lansdowne Road proposals, even by the end of 2017 they will still be earning less in take-home pay than they were getting in 2009 before this completely unjustified robbery of their income took place.

That is what we are talking about. We believe it was wrong to do it to them then. It was wrong to make them the scapegoats for the crimes of others year after year since 2010. There is absolutely no justification for continuing this theft of their income - we are not talking about pay increases, we are talking about giving them back what was taken from them wrongly.

Can we afford it? The Minister mentioned a figure of €1.8 billion as the cost. Let us bear in mind that approximately 30% will come straight back in tax. The Minister should factor that into his calculations and be honest about the figures. Furthermore, we know where the rest of their money would go. It would not into offshore tax havens. It would not go into the pockets of people who pretend they do not live here and act as tax refugees - some of the richest people in this country. It would be spent in the high street shops and businesses that are struggling at the moment and that have been struggling ever since we slaughtered the income of ordinary workers with devastating consequences for our economy. It would fuel economic growth and generate revenue, employment and so on. It amounts to sound economics to give these workers back what was stolen from them.

I also wish to mention new entrants because of the scale of the problem. The fact that this debate took place two hours sooner than it should have has meant 40 teachers who had planned to come to the Gallery to hear the debate will now be unable to hear it. To my mind, that is rather tragic, although perhaps the Government knew that. Anyway, I will tell the Minister about two of them.

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