David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Who would have thought the most oppressed section of Irish society in terms of pay was three junior Ministers? It beggars belief that the Government would bring forward this proposal. The Minister is a former Minister for Health. Doctors and especially nurses, to whom all of us have rightly paid tribute over the past weeks and months and who have done Trojan work keeping us safe and operating on the front line of our health services, had to fight the Government tooth and nail for every single pay increase they have ever had. Even pay increases that were due have not been paid to their satisfaction. Either they have not been paid quickly enough or they have not happened in terms of the just claims nurses and doctors have made. Every time they raise these issues they are told the money is not there, they have to follow due process, there has to be a negotiation and all of what goes with that. Yet at the stroke of a pen this Government can just slip a pay increase into another Bill, one which is designed to do the right thing in terms of establishing the Minister's Department. The Minister knows I have an interest in this because of the need for a technological university for the south east. I wish him well in his role and hope he can get that job done for Waterford and the south east.

To increase the pay of three super junior Ministers when they are already well paid and at the time of a pandemic is, as mentioned by Deputy Doherty, to give the impression that they are the most oppressed, marginalised group in Irish society because the only group of people to which, thus far, this Government has given a pay increase if this Bill passes today is those three super junior Ministers. How in God's name can anybody in this House stand over that? It is beyond shameful that the Government would do that. As others have pointed out, Fianna Fáil has done a U-turn on this issue, as we have no doubt it will do on many other issues over the next number of weeks, months and years, as it has already done. There is no justification for this increase. Any Deputy who votes for it can no longer look a front-line worker, nurse, doctor or consultant in the eye and tell them that their pay claim is unjust, that it cannot be done, that they have to go to the bottom of the queue or that Government does not have the resources for it because they will rightly throw back at him or her how at the stroke of a pen Government slipped into this Bill a pay increase for three super junior Ministers but not for those who have held the front line.

As others have said, members of Government were quick to clap those front-line workers but now it is a slap in the face in terms of this proposed measure. Surely Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green Party members know this is wrong and sickening and that it should not be happening. Government knows it should not be doing this, but it does it anyway. Government should be ashamed of itself bringing forward this measure at a time of a pandemic, when so many people are suffering and when, as part of its July stimulus package, it proposes to reduce the pandemic unemployment payment for people who need it. The Government has the brass neck to introduce an amendment to increase the pay of three very well paid politicians. The brass neck of the people who will support this is galling. The hypocrisy is galling. Government knows that this is wrong and it should not be doing it. I hope at this eleventh hour it will support us in opposing this section of the Bill and do what is right on this occasion.

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