Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Every week I become more alarmed at how out of touch our public service, public service unions and the political establishment in general is with the difficulties people are encountering and at the complete disconnect or lack of empathy with their problems. This House could usefully focus on those issues. I appeal to the acting Leader that we address issues like banking on a weekly basis. The banks were recapitalised so that we would have a credit flow to SMEs and business. Nothing of the kind is happening, even though huge amounts of money have been invested in the banks. People have personal debt and are struggling with mortgages but banks are not dealing with the issue. The Personal Insolvency Bill is languishing somewhere in some civil servant's office and there is no credit flow to SMEs.

I agree with Senator Hayden that there has been some good news on job creation this week but we have also had a lot of bad news. I felt there was an air of unreality about the interview the Taoiseach did with Time magazine. The jobs being created is like placing a plaster on a tumour. It really will not achieve what is needed given the magnitude of the task. People are unemployed and people are emigrating. We face huge issues and we are talking about all sorts of partisan political issues in this and the Lower House.

As I said yesterday, the Government parties are squabbling with each other when people are crying out for leadership and for some answers to their problems. Unemployment is a major issue, as is public expenditure. We talk about allowances. Even without the allowances, there are no low paid public servants. I did an analysis going back a number of years which benchmarked pay across a broad range of public service positions with those in other western European countries, such as Britain, France, Italy and the Benelux countries. We are at the top, or near the top, of the list in all of them. Pay in the public service is way ahead. Some estimates put it at nearly 40% to 50% ahead of similar positions in the private sector.

We are crucifying the working class and middle class who are struggling as never before. No Government has tackled the disgrace of legal fees, a report on which was published in 2006 but has not been acted upon by any Minister. We owe it to the people to prioritise and deal with these issues and cut out the propaganda from all sides of the House in order to give hope to the younger generation who are facing unemployment and emigration.