Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----yet the public did not bite. About three or four years ago The Irish Timescarried out an attitudinal behavioural survey which was quite extensive and I vividly remember one of the key questions.All of the questions offered respondents a selection of answers labelled A, B or C. One of the questions was whether readers believed politicians' pay had increased, decreased or stayed the same since 2008 or 2009. Most respondents opted for choice A, that politicians' pay had risen. In other words, there was no recognition of all the efforts in this area by the former Minister for Finance. As Senator Norris noted on Second Stage, that Minister uniquely took away the increment from Deputies and Senators. We are the only group in the public service that does not have increments. Even in the private sector, the provision of incremental pay increases is a normal part of employment practice. It does not happen in all cases but it certainly is an accepted model. We were sacrificed on the basis of a populist decision of the day. Does anybody know or care about that? No, they do not.