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

The Minister should not give the money argument. There would be money available if some vulture funds and super-profitable corporations were made to pay their taxes. The issue at stake is discrimination. The Minister referred to negotiation. What is there to negotiate in terms of ending inequality? There is nothing to negotiate. It is fair enough for one to negotiate pay increases and other measures but why is the Minister using inequality as a bargaining chip in respect of teachers or other groups of public sector workers? It is fundamentally unfair. The Minister does not get the point. He should not be using it as a bargaining chip for future negotiation. He should acknowledge that it is pay apartheid. It should be illegal. Any other category of discrimination such as against women, LGBT people or racial minorities is illegal, yet the Minister has managed to impose arbitrary discrimination in employment - which is illegal for every other category - on the basis of whether one happened to come into a profession before or after 2010 or 2011. Is the Minister going to end the apartheid?

See this speech in context