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

That is really not good enough. I will tell the Minister of State who deserves pay rises for their level of responsibility. It is the nurses and the health workers who fought on the front line to protect our health, and the many workers in retail and other essential front-line services, often very low-paid workers, who worked throughout the pandemic. They deserve an increase. The people who do not deserve pay increases are politicians and Ministers. It is shocking and disgusting that Ministers of State on €124,000, about three times the average industrial wage, and about three times what the average nurse would get, are now to get an additional €16,000: Jack Chambers, Hildegarde Naughton and Pippa Hackett. It is extraordinary. Is €124,000 not enough for these people that they have to get an additional €16,000 and this is to be done at the very same time that the Government is planning to cut the pandemic unemployment payment from €350 to €300, and for others down to €250 or €200. Workers who have lost their jobs and incomes through no fault of their own as a result of a pandemic and Government-imposed necessary public health guidelines are to see their incomes slashed where it may be very difficult or impossible for them to return to work, but Ministers of State on €120,000 will receive an additional €16,000. Seriously, it is shocking. Does the Minister of State really think that is the right signal to send out? Does he really think that is just in the current climate when hundreds of thousands of workers in this country face serious hardship and uncertainty or are simply unable to go back to work because of the situation we are in? Will the Minister of State give us a better explanation or justification for that?

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