Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I completely understand where the Minister is coming from and that we must try to manage the public finances in a prudent manner. I get that. We in Sinn Féin get that. We are, however, constantly hearing the talk about the risks of a wage-price spiral. There is a problem in that. The argument has been there was not any evidence for that, and there has been wage growth in some sectors. The Minister will be aware this wage growth has mostly been in the multinational sectors. For many other sectors wage growth has been stagnant for some time. We are going back to like it was in the 1970s. We cannot go back 50 years and use the same model currently. It is not possible. By giving public sector workers a proper pay rise, I believe this will help them to deal with the cost of living and it would help to ease the burden on families. It would help them to cover their increasing costs. At this stage these are ever-increasing costs. We do not need to transport back to the 1970s. We need to move forward, if possible, please.

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