David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 6, to delete lines 18 to 44 and substitute the following:

"(a) in the case of the Taoiseach, a 64 per cent reduction of remuneration in lieu of a reduction of 25 per cent of remuneration;

(b) in the case of the Tánaiste, a 59 per cent reduction of remuneration in lieu of a reduction of 19.5 per cent of remuneration;

(c) in the case of a Minister of the Government, a 55.5 per cent reduction of remuneration in lieu of a reduction of 19.5 per cent of remuneration;

(d) in the case of a Minister of State, a 35 per cent reduction of remuneration in lieu of a reduction of 10 per cent of remuneration;

(e) in the case of a Ceann Comhairle, 55.5 per cent reduction of remuneration in lieu of a reduction of 15 per cent of remuneration;

(f) in the case of a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, a 35 per cent reduction of remuneration in lieu of a reduction of 10 per cent of remuneration;

(g) in the case of the Attorney General, a 55 per cent reduction of remuneration in lieu of a reduction of 15 per cent of remuneration; and

(h) in the case of the Comptroller and Auditor General, a 60 per cent reduction of remuneration in lieu of a reduction of 15 per cent of remuneration.".".

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. The amendment has the effect of reducing the wages of the officeholders listed to €100,000. On Second Stage, mention was made of this Bill not dealing with pay. It deals with the outworking of the referendum, which my party supported, and the current pay of judges but it also introduces a pay scale for new entrants to the Judiciary and legislates for the voluntary reductions in the salaries of the Government officeholders referred to.

Let us consider the amendment and what would be necessary to reduce the pay of some of the more senior Government representatives and civil servants in the State to a salary of €100,000. It would amount to a 64% reduction in the pay of the Taoiseach, a 59% reduction in the pay of the Tánaiste, a 55% reduction for a Minister, a 35% reduction for a Minister of State, a 55% reduction for a Ceann Comhairle, a 35% reduction for a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, a 55% reduction for an Attorney General and a 60% reduction for the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Earlier, Senator Walsh referred to privilege. We must deal with privilege in this State. Many people will be waking up today in the wake of two days of cuts in social welfare, health, education and throughout public spending. The will be asking themselves what pain was taken by those at the top. The notion of capping pay at €100,000 seems to trouble some people in Government. It is as if we are asking people to live on the bread line or to take a massive hit. In reality, we are asking people to survive on €2,000 per week.

Vast numbers of people are living on the average industrial wage, below it or on social welfare entitlements. They see people at the top of the public service with their salaries and pensions earning vast amounts of money. They wonder what planet those of us in public life live on. We live in a country that is insolvent, broke and in which we must borrow vast amounts of money. We are informed that in these difficult times we must borrow money, we cannot afford to pay child benefit as before, we cannot afford to pay all the welfare payments, such as rent supplement, which have been cut in the budget, we cannot afford to pay low- or middle-income families the income they had received, people must pay a €100 flat household charge and VAT must go up despite the subsequent impact on businesses. We are informed that such decisions are being made, that the pain must be shared and that people must take some of the pain. In this State the Taoiseach earns €200,000, the Chief Justice earns €226,376, a High Court judge earns €210,206 and a Minister of State earns €130,000. We have a P. Flynn moment from a lot of Government representatives when it is put to them those amounts of money are not realistic and should not be paid to people in these very difficult times.

I do not believe that it is radical to ask people in the public sector, in these very difficult times, to survive on a salary of €100,000 when one considers what many people are surviving on. Sinn Féin has proposed that we set up a commission to examine the pay of people at the top of the public service and what we should pay. I accept that we need to pay adequate and appropriate salaries, but we should not pay excessive salaries. When the country is insolvent it is entirely reasonable to cap the pay of all Government representatives and those who work in the public sector and judges at €2,000 a week.