Joe O'Toole (Independent)

It is not only public servants who say as much. One can put the question to anyone in the street, asking their views on the way with which the banks have been dealt. We are taking our money and investing it in banks which are the cause of this problem and which are still being run by the same people. It simply is unacceptable. No matter what people try to convince themselves of, there is no way this will ever fly. I appeal to my colleagues on the Government side of the House to consider that point. That is the reality and it will not change. We must be very serious about this matter.

I seek an answer to one question. Let us consider a sum of money, whether it is €60,000, €70,000 or €80,000 per year. It does not matter where one begins, no one could argue that everyone earning above a given amount should be charged more, nor could anyone argue with public servants being asked to pay additionally for their pension. However, if one does not deal with these issues and only focuses on 300,000 people from a workforce of 2 million people, half of whom earn less than €60,000 per year, to try to pretend to solve a problem, which it will not, while the people who caused this problem are swanning around looking down at us and not paying the price, it just will not work and it will cause industrial and social chaos.