Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak to this motion. I could not agree more with Deputy Catherine Connolly that this motion is nothing more than a populist stunt. The work of the Business Committee was hijacked a couple of weeks ago by Deputy Micheál Martin but the Sinn Féin representative on that committee had also agreed the business for that week and then voted against it. That is populism at its best. During my contribution on the budget I declared that I would not be taking the €5,000 per annum increase for myself and that I intended to give it to charitable organisations in my constituency.

As I said, this motion is nothing short of naked populism. Sinn Féin Deputies may not be taking the money for themselves but they are putting it into their campaigns, as are the Anti-Austerity Alliance and all the other hard left Deputies, many of whom are so hard now they do not know what they feel. They talk about the poor and people who have nothing. We all witnessed the near riot they caused during the water protests with no regard to the costs in that regard to the Garda Síochána. Despite all their talk last week about supporting the Garda Síochána, many of them and their supporters were outside this House spitting at the Garda.

What we need is a modicum of fair play. We cannot have salaries set by Deputies. They were set by us for long enough. That was a charade and it was not right or acceptable. Now Deputies' salaries are linked to the infamous Lansdowne Road agreement and the principal officer grade. Many Deputies might be willing to give up the proposed salary increase but what about the principal officers? There are only 158 of us but there are many hundreds of principal officers and other higher officers. In an interview this morning with Sean O'Rourke, his lordship, Jack O'Connor, huffed and puffed and refused to answer any of the questions he was asked while proclaiming the Lansdowne Road agreement to be better than the kingdom come. We are told now that even though this salary increase is provided under the Lansdowne Road agreement, we should not take it. This is populism. Sinn Féin members take their salaries from the European Parliament, the Stormont Assembly and from the British Parliament, which its members do not even attend, and they put it into their campaigns.

I know of a Deputy who five years ago tried to rent an office in Deputy Cullinane's constituency in Waterford. He could not afford it but four days later it was rented by Sinn Féin. Do they expect us to believe they are paying the high rents in constituencies like Dungarvan, Tramore and so on out of their so-called industrial wage? They are not. I heard Deputy Eugene Murphy of Fianna Fáil say earlier that he had opened three offices. More power to him. Our job is to serve the public. We are Teachtaí Dála elected by the people and we should never forget it. We are not naked populists that want to jump on every bandwagon and have every type of issue hijacked and banjaxed and so on. That is the reason Sinn Féin did not make the strides in the election it expected to make. The electorate is clever enough to know that they need to elect people who will represent them. I am not speaking in this regard only about farmers. I represent every person in my constituency to the best of my ability and I will continue to do so for as long as they elect me, whether they are unemployed or working people. I will not engage in the type of populism or charade in which Sinn Féin is engaged. Its members are accepting their salaries and investing it in campaigns to repeal the eighth amendment and to have water charges abolished. Sinn Féin is anti-everything. It is not pro-anything.

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