Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the former Attorney General, Séamus Woulfe, who was appointed to the Supreme Court yesterday. He has served the country and this House well.

I raise the issue of closing pubs and responding on a national basis to what is in some cases a regional problem. We are taking a big stick to the entire country. While there are, without doubt, certain areas which are, for want of a better word, misbehaving by not following the guidelines, it will be detrimental to the tourism season if we take a blanket approach. I ask the Government and experts to work with local authorities, rather than taking a national view on everything, to see if we can open up some areas more than others and provide places for people to go that are safe.

The Leader, in her former role in the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, discussed in this House class K PRSI. Class H PRSI, as it applies to public servants, also applies to most of the Members of this House. We had a successful outcome on the issue of class K PRSI for members of local authorities, although this has been limited in its success. Class K PRSI is now coming back to bite former Members of this House who lost their seats in the recent election. Members of the Oireachtas are human beings like anybody else. They are entitled to be treated in the same way as any other worker in this country. If we want to penalise public service, we should put a tax on it. To use the social protection system to collect 4% of the salary of every Member of this House and give them absolutely nothing in return is a crime. It has been accepted by a joint Oireachtas committee that it is wrong and in a court case I brought to the High Court, the case was settled outside of court and county councillors were moved to class S PRSI. Not every person who enters this House will be here for a full 20 years or will stay beyond a particular period. Young Members of the House who served one term were on class K PRSI. Their social protection record is broken and they are not entitled to anything. That is simply poor performance by their employer, in this instance the State. We need a debate as soon as possible on the terms and conditions of employment for Members. Former Members of this House are now in dire straits because they have no income and that is simply wrong.There are other Members who have reached retirement age and they find their contributory old age pension has been decimated as result of being a Member of this House for a short period of time. That is wrong. The same applies to county councillors. We should have that debate and I ask the Leader to facilitate it.