Ivana Bacik (Independent)

The Minister is right. It is good to hear that Sinn Féin, like other parties, agrees in principle with the idea of a single scheme applying to all public servants. Members of the Oireachtas are patently not public servants in the same way as a public servant who has a career in the Civil Service. As the Minister has said, the reality of elections every five years or more frequently means we cannot treat the two groups in the exact same way. The key point is that this position does not privilege Members of the Oireachtas - it simply recognises the difference between them and public servants.