Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

We meet them every day; therefore, we know their needs and demands. We are accountable to them. It was disingenuous, therefore, of Senator Doherty to question our bona fides in the work we do.

As Ministers, we are very well paid. Senators and Deputies are also very well paid. That is why, as Ministers, we took a formal, legal and permanent cut of 15%. We are still well paid - I am not making an issue of it - and there is no point trying to prove otherwise. When we are faced with having to reduce expenditure, we cannot just look at income; it cannot all come from revenue raising measures. We had to reduce our expenditure in order that we could make the structural changes that will apply for the next number of years.

Fine Gael also recommended cutting expenditure on social welfare.