Shane Ross (Independent)

Of all the Departments in which this should happen, this is the worst because the Department of Finance is the one that distributes and controls the money. It makes decisions on how money is spent and about social welfare and elsewhere. Now we find that hundreds of thousands of euro are going into the pockets of some of these Department officials on the q.t. It was done quietly and we knew nothing of this. Thank God Deputy Fergus O'Dowd has exposed it, otherwise we would never have known. There is no transparency in the Department of Finance and it is helping itself to public money. How can the Government defend not paying Christmas bonuses to people on social welfare when the Department is helping itself to this money?

I do not accept the explanation which has been given that we should not be concerned because the bonuses are only going to those at the top. It is extraordinary that this should be the plea made, that it is all right because the bonuses are going to the fat cats in the Department of Finance and elsewhere in the public service, that we should not worry because we are not giving it to the guys at the bottom, only to the guys at the top. What more evidence do we need that there is a silent compact and bonus culture shared between people at the top in the banks and people at the top of the public service? It is not just there. Many times in this House Members have exposed the fact that this culture exists at the top of semi-State companies. It came out in the response to Deputy O'Dowd's question as well that there are people being paid hundreds of thousands of euro in performance bonuses which they do not merit and in some cases where their semi-State is making losses.