Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I do not think it is possible to do it now. I do not want to get bogged down in that, as I have said, because I do not want it to take away from the really important legislation that is before us.

Senator Quinn spoke about the pension levy. We get confused sometimes. Of course the pension levy only applies to the private sector, but there are other levies that apply to the public sector. The levy that was introduced by my colleague, the Minister for Finance, applies to all funded pension schemes, public and private. I remind Senator Quinn that all public service pensions above €12,000 that are in payment have been reduced as a direct result of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Acts. That affects every pensioner who has a pension above €12,000. I am not talking about a reduction in the fund that pays those pensions, but about a reduction being sliced off the actual pension. That contribution continues to be paid. In the cases of the highest of those pensions, the reduction greatly exceeds any reduction that may result from the temporary levy on pension pots that was introduced by my colleague, the Minister for Finance.

We need to understand. Bluntly, I am fed up of the notion of dividing the public and private sectors. For a very long time, certain newspapers engaged in the demonising of the public sector. I have asked public servants to make a big sacrifice again this year under the Haddington Road agreement. Virtually everybody has stepped up to the plate by accepting the agreement. They have not done so happily, but they have done so in the knowledge of the parlous state of the State finances. There is a hole to fill and they are needed to make a further contribution. I applaud them. I know the people who work in my Department. I know the work they did on the budget, night and day and across weekends. I know the people who worked on the sale of State assets, for example on the processing of the national lottery licence. They did exemplary work. I know the people who worked through weekends on the Haddington Road agreement. I know people who worked on the EU Presidency where time was not an issue.

We want to understand that we have a very fine public service that steps up to the plate and should be acknowledged for the work it has done. I ask people to negotiate a reduction in their own pay. That is what I asked my team in Haddington Road to do and that should be recognised.

Senator O'Keeffe spoke about the Open Government partnership. It is something we should learn more about. It is a relatively new partnership initiated by President Obama at a side event at the UN General Assembly some years ago. The plenary session met last week in London and I was privileged to attend. Now that over 60 countries are now signing up, we need a national action plan. I commissioned Transparency International Ireland to facilitate that because the NGO sector has a particularly important role to play. I am looking forward to debating these action plans in the future. At that London forum, I was asked to give the keynote speech on whistleblowing because they regard our legislation as an exemplar. It is something at which we can look with some sense of pride.

Senator Reilly spoke about the salaries of politicians. I have already mentioned that. She spoke about the chairpersons of committees not being entitled to anything extra. That is a point of view. I was brought up in a trade union household and normally, when one gets extra work, there is a recognition of that. If it was a store foreman or supervisor, one would regard that person as being entitled to a bit more pay than the person who works with them.

Unfortunately, Senator Healy Eames had to leave but she asked for a response orally and in writing. I think the writing bit will be on the public record of the House. She raises an important issue that was echoed with some passion by Senator Bradford, namely, that when a parliamentarian resigns from their political party, the party should be deprived of the funding that goes with that.