Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

The Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach is on record as saying that no clear process was followed in deciding to give a 38% pay rise to Robert Watt. He stated “While I would rather there was a much more scientific process for all of these things, there is not.” Some €81,000 extra was given to Mr. Watt, more than the vast majority of workers earn in a whole year as a regular wage, not a pay increase, and with no scientific process for it. We hear that further pay increases of 10% to 15% may possibly be given to those earning over €150,000 in July but that they may be postponed. How can the Taoiseach justify such pay increases for highly-paid officials while most ordinary workers are getting below-inflation pay increases? Instead of pay rises for those at the top, should we not have a maximum pay in the public sector and instead have above-inflation pay rises for ordinary workers in both the private and public sectors?

See this speech in context