Martin Conway (Fine Gael)

Will the Leader ascertain what the IMF makes of the fact that the chief executive of the ESB is on €15,000 a week, that the chief executive of the Dublin Airport Authority is on €11,000 a week and the chief executive of An Post is on €10,000 a week and it goes on. I join colleagues in commending the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, for saving the taxpayer an extra €2,000 a week. However, this is only a drop in the ocean. What is happening is a joke. It is akin to what one would see in a banana republic. The Government at this stage needs to direct all semi-state companies to not pay bonuses to any management, senior or junior. The bonus culture is what has this country the way it is. There was a notion that we were playing with Monopoly money. People who were supposed to work as public servants running our semi-State companies in the interests of Ireland and its people were being paid lulu money. It is absolute madness. I am sure we are the laughing stock of Europe and that the IMF has an awful lot to say about it, given the fact it is bailing us out on a monthly basis. I ask the Leader to establish the view of the IMF of the bonus culture.