Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I also attended that very powerful meeting this morning. The mark of an employer is how well they pay and treat their workers. It is a stain on all of us here in this House, as employers, that our secretarial assistants are paid at the current rate. We cannot control their pay, but there are things that we can do to make sure it changes.

Senator Gavan eloquently set out all the arguments. When I look at the figures, I see that a secretarial assistant is paid 41% less than a parliamentary assistant to a Deputy. Anybody in this House who is a former Deputy might tell us whether there is proportionately 41% less work involved in being a Senator than in being a Deputy.