Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

I am not saying anyone is arguing for such a measure but there must be economy in the running of politics and this applies individually and collectively. Senator Hanafin mentioned figures that were quite high, according to my experience, but perhaps he was elected by a more comfortable margin than I ever achieved. The figure of €30,000 was mentioned for a Seanad campaign but in 2002 I did not spend more than €12,000. For a Dáil campaign the amount suggested was €70,000; we all know parties take a certain amount of what an individual can spend and use it at national and regional levels. One would not be allowed to spend €70,000 in a Dáil campaign. It is undesirable that a successful campaign should require more and more money; very often successful campaigns seem to be linked to the amount of money available and there is no more striking example of this than the first Lisbon treaty referendum. In that case a great deal of money was spent on the "No" campaign by a particular organisation and this clearly brought results. To be fair, it was an intelligent and focused campaign and did not relate solely to the spending of money.

Regarding Senator Cummins's point, Ministers and Ministers of State took a voluntary salary reduction of 10%, which is closer to 20% when one includes the levy. The Senator is correct to note that this applied to the ministerial part of the salary; I am not aware that anyone tried to present anything else as being the case. The pension levy applied to the other part of the salary - the Dáil salary. Certain Members of the Oireachtas made an equivalent voluntary reduction, though not many.

The Minister has referred the issue of the high salaries of office holders, including those at the top of the public service, to the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector to benchmark pay against international and EU rates and to write a report; this has not been widely noted and its significance has been underestimated.

I will not delay the House. I thank Members for their support; more will be teased out on Committee Stage.