Alex White (Labour)

There is a manifest ambiguity. I will go back to section 2(2) to demonstrate that there is a clear ambiguity, if an ambiguity can be clear. The salary of the Taoiseach, the Ministers and the Ministers of State will be dealt with one way or the other, which is the clear intention of section 2(2). Part of section 2(2) states:

(a) in the case of persons to whom Table 1 to this section relates, reduced in accordance with that Table, and

(b) in any other case, subject to subsection (7), reduced in accordance with Table 2 or Table 3 (as the case requires) to this section.

Even if what I am saying is not absolutely correct, for the Minister of State to say that there is no ambiguity is nonsensical. How can he say that there is no ambiguity when I raise an issue that he cannot even deal with? He said that the extra 2% would be lobbed over onto the other side and taken off there as a way to deal with the problem. That strategy does not even appear in the Bill.

If the Taoiseach and other officeholders suffer a pay cut under table 1, it seems that they do not suffer a second cut under table 3. The Minister of State must accept that. The Bill does not capture the salary of the Minister of State in both table 1 and table 3. It comes under one or the other. It is capable of being interpreted in a way that would mean the Taoiseach, Ministers and Ministers of State would only have one cut, and not two cuts.