Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

In recent months, I have had time to sit down and think about what happened between 2008 and the current day. Between 2011 and 2014, I was actively involved in some of the cuts that were made to the salaries paid to public servants. Members of my union at the time, the Teachers' Union of Ireland, were thrown into income poverty and I remember that my own net salary fell by €1,000. Substantial sums were taken from public servants. In the 2012 Lansdowne Road agreement negotiations, I, as president of the TUI, was told that all of the low hanging fruit was gone, that these were hard times so we all had to put our shoulder to the wheel and that we were all in it together. I have since realised that there was an exclusive class in this country for whom the case was made to top up their salaries by up to €20,000 per year and these were people who already earned €80,000 a year.The argument was that they were indispensable. There were fine and hard-working civil servants for whom nobody could make a case for topping up their salaries. Nobody could make a case to defer or ignore the employment framework, but from the top of the political system from the office of the President right down through Ministers, special cases were made for salary top-ups and for special jobs to be created. Before we have an inauguration on 11 November, I want legislation to be brought in to regularise the office of Áras an Uachtaráin, which can be done prior to the next President taking his or her place.