Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I have just put down the telephone from a couple who were in tears, a nurse married to a teacher, comfortably off, with their own house and paying back their mortgage. They outlined to me what their position will be after yesterday. His mother is in a nursing home and he has only one other sibling with whom he shares those costs after his mother's pension is included. The couple used to get a 40% pension break on what they were paying for the nursing home fees but that has been reduced to 20%. When all reductions are put together, they will be more than €1,000 per month worse off. They asked me if I thought this was fair. The woman is a nurse and deals with consultants on a daily basis. The consultant she dealt with this morning earns €200,000 to €300,000 per year. She does not begrudge this to him but he has been asked to pay 2% extra by way of the levy. She has been asked to pay the levy, the pension levy and additional costs for the nursing home, amounting to more than €1000 per month. There is something wrong in that system. It is grossly unfair and unacceptable.

We have seen one side of this. I said yesterday, and will say again, that if the Government must take unpopular decisions then it must do so. If it must demand of the public sector that those people punch above their weight then it must do that. My telephone was ringing all last night and this morning. What I cannot explain to people is where fairness comes into the equation. Will someone explain to me why a person who earns more than €100,000 per year, whether in the public or the private sector, cannot be asked to pay a fair share through taxation?

I conceded yesterday that as future public service pensioners it is only right that we should be asked to pay more. I do not begrudge that. I spent four years in the Commission on Public Service Pensions and I never denied that point, nor will I do so now. However, there is a gross lack of fairness and a number of issues must be examined. The point I made yesterday has been made by many people on these benches for the past two months. We are now scraping money from ordinary people to pay off bankers and developers who are still in situ——