Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The draconian cuts in pay and pensions were introduced at a very different time in this country. There was a financial emergency and there may have been some kind of justification for the cuts at the time. The public expected the Government to deal with the awful situation in which the country found itself but it expected this would be done in a fair way. Unfortunately that was not the case. When we look back at who paid the biggest price, it was those who were least able to afford it. The burden of austerity did undoubtedly fall disproportionately to those on low and middle incomes. The FEMPI cuts on public service pay and pensions were drastic and people on fairly modest incomes and pensions were hit with this huge cut in their take-home pay. At the same time, they were hit with a raft of charges. It was a double whammy for many of these public service workers and the result of that undoubtedly decimated many people's standard of living. That was particularly hard to take when there was a very strong sense within the country that the cuts were not being applied fairly and that there were still sections of Irish society - to a large extent the better-off sections - that seemed to be escaping without having to shoulder that burden at all.

We have come through a number of years with those FEMPI cuts and there is no doubt it is time to unwind them fully. I do not understand why we have to wait until 2020 for pay to be fully restored. The approach should be to prioritise those on modest and low pay. That has not been the case. It was a mistake last year to announce that Deputies would have full pay restored in two lots and many others with similar pay, senior civil servants, principal officers and higher grades within the Civil Service were to have their full pay restored but that was a mistake.

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