Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

An English billionaire once insulted half of the world's working population when he said, "If you pay peanuts you will get monkeys." Of course, the extremely generous wages paid to Deputies have never been a guarantee against monkey business in this House but it has guaranteed a Dáil that is out of touch with the lived experience of ordinary people. How many Deputies will get through Christmas only with the help of St. Vincent de Paul? How many had to count the pennies this year just to scrape a holiday? How many simply cannot afford private health care?

On over €87,000, Deputies are a privileged lot. Workers who perform vital work and without whom society could not properly function such as nurses, bus drivers and others, are paid only a fraction of the wage of a Deputy. Many young teachers, trusted to educate the next generation, are paid less than their workplace colleagues and, needless to say, no such sanction applies to new Deputies. The worker on the minimum wage receives four and a half times less pay than a Deputy and the person on social welfare receives nine times less. The Government, Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party, however, defend not just the status quobut a big wage increase, which is more than 12 times the wage increase of the minimum wage worker, ten times that of the person on social welfare and significantly more than workers in the categories I mentioned, without whom society could not properly function. It is wrong and we will support the motion this evening.

We are also tabling an amendment to insert the words, "...further acknowledges that elected representatives who truly wish to represent the interests of working class people should live on no more than the average industrial wage;..." after the words "...effect on the majority of households; and...". This amendment is not so much for the benefit of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Deputies, who represent the interests of big business, big farmers and the wealthy in society who have no interest in living on the average industrial wage. It is inserted precisely for those Deputies whose aim is to truly represent working-class people. Those Deputies must be able not just to talk the talk but to walk the walk - to walk in the shoes of the working people they seek to represent. That is why Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit Deputies live on no more than the average industrial wage. We are workers' Deputies on workers' wages. Even if this motion is defeated and the wage increases go ahead, our Deputies will not personally benefit by even one penny. Rather than hand the money back to Deputy Michael Noonan to pay bondholders and to provide tax breaks for landlords and big builders, we will donate every penny to campaigns aimed at improving life for ordinary working people. We will donate to community campaigns such as the anti-water charge movement, to progressive campaigns such as the repeal movement and to strike funds for working people.

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