Eoghan Harris (Independent)

Last night, the President pointed out that the Seanad was a place where we could be fearless in speaking, but I am afraid that we are always flunking. We have had months and months of worked up public anger about the banks, which has all been very well, but two groups benefited from the Celtic tiger, namely, the property groups allied with the banks and the public sector. While Anglo Irish Bank is a bad situation, it is a manageable one. What are not manageable are our public sector finances. The State's liability in terms of public sector pay and pensions increased by €6 billion in the past five years. The elephant is in the room but no one will touch it. The media cannot touch it because the public sector is articulate and buys newspapers. RTE is a part of the public sector, The Irish Times is a trust and you are locked in and institutionalised. I say "you" because I feel distinct from Senators in this matter. There is a conspiracy of silence in the Oireachtas about the public sector. No one will tackle or speak about the issue or point out that, even had we managed Anglo Irish Bank and had there been no banking crisis, we would have a crisis in our public finances.

Nothing will be done unless we tackle the pay and pensions side of the public sector. Its members are the only group in the country who are permanently insulated against the horrors of the economic recession. They seem to feel they are entitled to it. There is no such entitlement. A member of a political party in the House told me last night that, when she was canvassing recently, she came to a house where a single woman had lost her job, had no one to turn to, was caught in a mortgage she did not know how to service and was told by her bank when she asked for interest finance that it was turning her back towards a mortgage. She asked what she could do and to where she could turn. At the next house, a public sector worker in receipt of more than €80,000 per year whinged about the levy. What kind of world does that person live in? Let us get a grip, starting in this House.

Before we have the budget and ask the productive middle class of the private sector, the productive blue collar workers or the welfare mothers to carry the can, we should turn to the fat cats of the public service to carry some of it. We should start with ourselves by taking a 20% cut before turning to any other part of the economy.