Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I refer the Minister to the Taoiseach's comments yesterday. The Taoiseach is on a salary of over €180,000 and he supports the chief executive of Irish Rail, who gets over €211,000 per year. He told the Dáil the rail workers' demands are unaffordable. These demands equate to a pay rise of 3.75% after ten years of pay freezes, two years of pay cuts, increased productivity and rising passenger numbers. That is along with all the austerity imposed on us, including property tax, universal social charge and everything else. Apparently, an increase of 3.75% is unaffordable. Where does the Government get off? It is affordable to increase salaries for chief executive officers, the Taoiseach and Ministers but it is apparently not affordable to meet reasonable pay demands that are only keeping track with increased costs of living.

Many workers earning between €30,000 and €40,000 are enemy No. 1 for demanding a modest pay rise after a decade of these cuts and pay freezes. Since 2008, this State has cut subvention for rail from €181 million to €117 million. There were eight years of cuts, which were demanded by Irish Rail to plug the gap in funding, and this made employees work harder and longer for less work. Wage costs fell by €25 million and there has been a decrease of 20% in the staffing of the company. On the picket lines this week I spoke with drivers and other staff who are in fear of their lives running trains up and down the country with only two staff on them, the driver and AN Other. Often they deal with assaults, threats and can witness suicides. They are put under great duress. Trains are operating with a skeleton staff and they are not getting decent pay rises that would keep them ahead of cost increases.

What does the Minister have to say about that? Is this affordable or unaffordable? Will we treat these staff like nurses and teachers who we cannot recruit any more because we are not paying them enough to live in this increasingly costly country?

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