Eoghan Harris (Independent)

Common logic and arithmetic dictate we should look to the public sector to make savings. Marc Coleman pointed out that if we were to look to the public sector alone, neither the welfare sector nor the productive private sector would need to be touched. There are pension liabilities of €108 billion, huge salaries, hundreds of thousands of euro being spent on hospitals that have not been built, consultant reports on ramshackle wastage, all kinds of carry on and codology and it all comes back continually to the public sector. The managers are sitting and procrastinating and hoping for a change of Government instead of producing budget savings under the Croke Park deal. They have not done so; they have not got on with it. Common sense, common decency, common logic and common arithmetic dictate that we should look to the public sector and ourselves first. We have no right to impose any cut on any section of the community, unless we in the political class take at least a 20% cut.