Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

I do not wish to delay the House because it is 1.15 a.m. Fairness and balance is what we seek in this legislation. We are doing the right thing because we are leading by example. We are showing those who have lost their jobs that while the allocation of money involved is small, it is leading by example. It is a small lead, but it is the example that really matters. I certainly support the Minister of State in his efforts.

I remember in 1982 the salary of a Senator was €9,100; today it is €70,000. However, there are the levies, income tax and all those deductions that come out of it. Members are lucky to have €35,000 in take-home pay.

It is temporary employment. As I have seen down through the years, the Dáil changes its membership by approximately 30% in every general election, with the exception of 1982 when 55 TDs ceased membership of the Dáil through retirement or not being re-elected. Also in that year there were 16 outgoing members of Fine Gael in the Seanad, 14 of whom did not return. There were 14 new Members along with two long-standing colleagues, who are still Members of the House and distinguished colleagues.

That goes to show the difficulty entailed in the permanent employment of being a public representative. One gives away everything. One gives away one's independence and one's privacy. One puts one's availability to the nation first before one's family and oneself. Like colleagues, I know many wealthy people who became Members of both the Dáil and the Seanad over the years - I have been coming here since 1963 - who left this House penniless, and it was worse years ago.

When I became a Member in 1982, there were five Members, four TDs and myself as a Senator, in the one office. We had one secretary and we booked our hour on the telephone because there was only one. Of course, being the junior Member, I was given the 5 o'clock to 6 o'clock time slot. We have come a long way in being given the tools of our ware and of this technological age.

The Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, is held in high regard throughout the nation as someone who has served the country well to the limit. With many Taoisigh, he played a pivotal role in the North of Ireland. He is most welcome in this House. He is a great supporter of this House and a former Member.

The area I want to address is the expectation of the long-service increment to TDs and Senators. The long-service increment is not gained but worked hard for. The reason the long-service increments were made on seven years and then increased on ten years was for the positions the TDs and Senators were holding as Front Bench spokespersons or assistant spokespersons on the various Departments. They had no research back-up. They had nothing. The Front Bench spokespersons of the Opposition parties in the Dáil in particular and of all sides in the Seanad do not get anything for their research or for what they do, yet they take on the extra responsibility of spokesperson on behalf of their party. That remuneration is now being removed in the national interest. I am pleased to learn that those who have the long-service increments will be able to avail of them with their pension rights. I would like to think that when the economy turns around in a few years' time, these long-service increments, which are incentive payments to those of us who are spokespersons, would be looked at again.

On the remuneration for committee Chairmen, which was reduced by 50%, Vice Chairmen and convenors, surely given the tribunal experience and the tens of millions of euro it has cost the taxpayers, the success of committees has been central to saving the taxpayer. Look at what the DIRT inquiry of the Committee of Public Accounts, chaired by the late Deputy Jim Mitchell, saved the taxpayer, and the deliberations of the committee were successfully concluded within a short period. Look at the way the Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business, which I chaired in the previous Dáil, dealt with high insurance costs at the time and how we saved premium holders tens of millions of euro just by having the members of the committee present and giving the small remuneration to the Chairman, the Vice Chairman and the convenor. This is a retrograde step in the case of committees because they save the taxpayer massive sums of money in the long term compared with the work being done in the tribunals, work which should be done under the scrutiny of the television cameras with everything available for the purposes of openness and transparency. Committees do such work in record time.

When the economy returns to normal, we must give the tools of the ware to the committee system in the House because I can see it playing a central role in EU scrutiny which has not been carried out to the extent it should be. I recall when I was Chairman of the Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business the enormous volume of post, weighing almost half a stone, that used to come to me every day.

There are other areas I could touch on but it is late. The Bill is welcome and shows we are giving example. I would like to think the few points I made from my long years of experience would not be forgotten when the economy, hopefully, improves in the not too distant future.