Is the Taoiseach aware that the remuneration package of €4.5 million for the former chief executive of Eircom has scandalised ordinary people throughout the country and outraged, in particular, the people who were lured by the Government to invest in the privatisation process and then heavily lost much of their savings as a result? Is the Taoiseach ashamed that what was once a vital publicly owned asset, and could have been developed as such, is now a commodity with which to be speculated by international venture capitalists and sucked dry by them for personal enrichment?

Does the Taoiseach agree that his colleague, the esteemed Leader of the Seanad and former Minister for Public Enterprise, has not a shred of credibility when she glides in front of a microphone on national radio and whines about this scandal, having been the Government's instrument in cranking up the carousel of greed that led to this obscene avarice? Is the Taoiseach aware that the revelation of this rip-off follows the announcement from the Revenue Commissioners that the richest of the rich in this State pay about 10% of their income in tax in contrast to at least 30% of income tax paid by ordinary working people? Will the Government continue to protect this obscene inequality?

The time allocated for the Deputy's question has concluded.