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

I have already spoken about the issue of pay inequality on the amendment that was ruled out of order. I am aware that quite a few teachers and other public servants are watching this debate and it is worth explaining to them because they probably do not know that our amendments and those of others - Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan, Solidarity-People Before Profit, Deputies Clare Daly, Mick Wallace, Joan Collins, Seamus Healy and others - were ruled out of order. They sought to end pay inequality. Therefore, we have been forced to table secondary amendments in an attempt to get around the provisions that allow amendments to be ruled out of order on this and many other issues dealt with in the recent Finance Act. We have had to resort to requesting reports to look at an issue because that is the only way we can have the matter discussed. Those watching must understand the ludicrous way in which Parliament works and that in many cases we cannot table amendments to legislation on the matters that really count for workers and other citizens.

To put it in very simple terms - it is an indictment of the regression in society that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party which all variously supported the FEMPI legislation passed legislation that will mean that new entrants to teaching, nursing and the public service will work longer and harder for less and that they will receive pensions of less value. That is the gift Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party have bestowed on future generations, which is shocking when one thinks about it. Our bequest to future generations is that they will be worse off. They will work longer and harder and when they retire which will be later than previous generations, their pensions will be worth less. That says it all about the regressive, backward-moving direction of society.

One of the things that has not been mentioned but which is worth saying, given that Deputy Jonathan O'Brien referred to how angry Deputies might be if there was to be pay apartheid for them, is that in a supreme insult to the post-2011 and 2012 generation Deputies, Ministers and Taoisigh who were elected prior to 2011 will enjoy far superior pension entitlements than those who were elected afterwards. The Minister should not get me wrong; as far as I am concerned, the pensions and pay of Deputies, Ministers and Taoisigh should be further reduced, but it is very telling that the political architects of the unprecedented crash in the economy which inflicted a decade of austerity which, in the case of pay equality, will mean that a younger generation of public servants will feel the impact of their crimes for the rest of their lives, unless pay and pension equality is restored, insulated themselves against the impact of the measures taken, which is absolutely disgusting. I have had to use that word twice in this debate, but it really is and people need to know because I suspect they do not. Some Ministers and Deputies are still sitting in this House who, because they happened to be elected before 2011, will be insulated against the pension reductions that were rightly imposed on the political class after 2011. They are the one group of people who deserved to have some cuts imposed on them after the crash, but those most responsible insulated themselves and bestowed all of this degradation in the value placed on the work of a younger generation who will work longer and harder for less and who when they retire which will be later, will receive pensions of less value. It really is utterly shameful.

I will conclude as I made most of the broader points in my previous contribution. That generation should not forgive the people who have done this and are continuing to do it to them. Their lives and even the value placed on their professions have been degraded as a result of the changes made which I do not think many of them will forget. It was noticeable at the demonstration outside last week of the young teachers from the ASTI, the TUI and the INTO just how angry and politicised they were by this injustice.

What is terrible is that now we are in a so-called recovery, but there is no acknowledgment or apology from the Government to the effect that what is being done to the people in question is wrong. It simply will not admit it; rather, it tries to suggest the starting salary of teachers is actually improving, that it is not bad and so on. It is trying to gloss over the fundamental injustice, that is to say, the people in question will forever and a day be on lower pay scales than those who entered before 2011. That is the position, unless it is changed, something to which the Government will not commit. At least, it could apologise and acknowledge that it is an injustice and promise that it will get rid of it.

The Minister of State, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, said it would cost €1.4 billion to do what some of us were proposing, that is, to get rid of pay inequality and ensure the full restoration of pay. That is less than the potential increase in expenditure if we meet the 2% requirement under the permanent structured co-operation agreement the Government is trying to ram through this week. Our current level of military expenditure is €900 million. To put it another way, military spending accounts for 0.5% of GDP. Under the deal the Government is trying to ram through this week, that figure will have to move progressively towards 2% of GDP. By the way, we cannot borrow to finance that spending. It will mean quadrupling military expenditure to a little under €4 billion. The precise figure is €3.6 billion. We can afford to support the military industrial complex and the armaments producers in Europe and sign up to it without much of a debate - the Government is trying to push it through under the radar - yet we cannot afford to provide for pay restoration for new entrant teachers. It is simply not true to say we cannot afford it; it is simply the case that the Minister's priorities are wrong. He believes building up the European military industrial complex and all of the military producers that lobbied the European Union on the PESCO arrangement are more important than restoring pay equality for young teachers, nurses and public servants. That embodies the distorted priorities of the Government.

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