Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I sincerely hope that those Deputies who will not support our motion will put their hand in their pockets and use their €100 a week to buy a bit of brasso for their brass necks. This is exactly what people will think when watching us this evening. They will see people who earn €87,000 a year and who lecture pensioners and tell them to be grateful for a fiver accept a €100 a week pay increase.

I was sent to the Dáil not to make a large amount of money but to stand up for people. I did not come here to take or support a weekly pay increase of €100 for myself but to speak for those the Minister believes should be grateful for a fiver a week.

The Government has stated repeatedly that Deputies, Senators, Ministers, public servants and everybody else had their pay cut and that the proposed increase in Deputies' pay is in line with the Lansdowne Road agreement. According to the Government, teachers at the bottom of the payscale who are worried about how they will pay their rent should be grateful for the protection afforded by the agreement. The Lansdowne Road agreement is crashing down around the Minister's feet. Unlike most of the Deputies present, Deputy Funchion and I have taken cases to the Labour Court on behalf of low-income workers who had justified pay claims. We were repeatedly told by the people seated on the other side who represented the Government that these claims could not be processed during the lifetime of the Lansdowne Road agreement because they would have a cost-increasing effect. Members of An Garda Síochána have exploded that myth.

As the president of SIPTU, Jack O'Connor, stated on a radio programme this morning and as plenty of others have pointed out, the Lansdowne Road agreement is over. Those who are left clinging tightly to the agreement are the people who are set to receive a pay increase of €100 per week. Everybody else in the public service is watching the Dáil. People know Deputies are well paid. No one disputes that we work hard but none of us works harder than a nurse working a shift in an accident and emergency department tonight or a teacher who came off the picket line today and will face his or her pupils tomorrow. If they are following this debate, I do not believe they will say that Deputies are worth this pay increase.

I am old enough to remember a time when the Labour Party had socialist members. By God, that party has changed. To be lectured by a Teachta Dála from the Labour Party who wags his finger and tells the House in no uncertain terms that he has no compunction about taking this pay increase because he is worth it is nothing short of disgraceful.

I will address the Fianna Fáil Deputies who expressed fauxoutrage about a potential loss of independence. I hope Deputy Calleary misunderstood the argument we have been making as I would like him to find it in his conscience to support the motion. Not one person on this side has suggested Deputies give up their independence. Sinn Féin is perfectly prepared to maintain the independent setting of Deputies' wages, but that does not mean we should take this pay increase.

Everyone speaks about being fair to low and middle-income workers. Fianna Fáil repeatedly says we should be fair to these workers out of one side of its mouth, while from the other side of its mouth, it says it will start being fair to low and middle-income workers by taking a €5,000 pay increase. Deputies on a salary of €87,000 will lead by example by taking a €5,000 pay increase, while shedding crocodile tears for people in the public service who tonight are worrying about how they will pay their rent and feed their children. I urge Deputies to lead by example and do the right thing by supporting the motion.

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