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

The Minister's colleagues in government have consistently refused to tackle and put a stop to the outrageous proposed increases in politicians' pay. He will agree with me that we are all well paid. Deputies earn a basic salary of €87,258. It is a wage that many workers would envy. Indeed, it is a wage that the majority of workers will never earn. Of course, the Minister and his ministerial colleagues take home much more - in excess of €150,000 - but let us stick with Deputies.

The proposed increases of more than €5,000 would bring a Deputy's salary to over €92,000. That is unacceptable, in particular at a time when Deputy Varadkar, as the Minister for Social Protection, is telling pensioners that they are worth an extra fiver per week and young people who are out of work are worth even less than that, a mere €2.70 per week. He still has not told social welfare recipients when they will get their increases. He might enlighten us in that regard.

The issue is one of fairness. That is what is driving pay disputes among gardaí, nurses and teachers. Today, Sinn Féin is publishing a motion that will stop these unfair payments to Deputies, Senators, the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister. This is not because we do not believe that people should be fairly paid but as a result of the fact that it is unfair that someone who is on €30,000 or €40,000 per year, an average wage in the public sector, gets pay restoration of €1,000 while Deputies expect to be paid €92,000.

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