Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Today, the Taoiseach will ram through his legislation for the highest number of super junior and junior Ministers in the history of the State. I refer to the jobs-for-the-boys-and-girls Bill that will give rise to bumper top-ups in salaries and expenses for all involved, including a pay hike of €45,000, additional expenses of €32,000 and salaries of €200,000 for super junior Ministers. The divvying up of this power is, of course, part of the grubby deal the Government struck with Deputy Michael Lowry. I do not think anyone who came out to vote last November believed that what this country needs is a record number of junior and super junior Ministers; far from it. To make matters worse, the Government is guillotining the debate. It does not want the space for Opposition to call it out on this. This is the worst type of gravy train politics and the Taoiseach needs to bring it to a halt or, at a minimum, allow for a full debate in the House without a guillotine.

See this speech in context