I call Deputy Boyd Barrett.

In case Members did not hear me, I called Deputy Boyd Barrett. Please allow him to ask his question.

The great German playwright Bertolt Brecht said that the crime of robbing a bank is nothing compared to the crime of owning one.

Are you apologising for Sinn Féin?

His words were written in the 1930s.

The next person who causes trouble is going out of the Chamber. Please allow the Deputy to ask his question without interruption.

He is provoking us.

I am warning Members, and I do not care who they are, that they will be put out the door.

I put it to the Tánaiste that the situation with the pay and pensions of both current and former bankers and bank executives in this country gives new meaning to the words "bank robbery". This is being done in the face of ordinary citizens who are raging about the fact that they have been battered with unemployment, health and education cuts, savage cuts to their incomes and cuts to vital services for vulnerable sectors of society. They find there is a golden circle of bankers who are super-paid. People who are responsible for getting us into this crisis are walking away with pensions of hundreds of thousands of euro while members of the political establishment that was responsible for presiding over the crisis are walking away with pensions of far more than €100,000 per year. Members of the existing Cabinet will also walk away with pensions of more than €100,000 per year in many cases at the end of this Dáil.

What will the Tánaiste do about this? Will he continue to hide behind legalistic talk about contractual obligations, which is just an excuse to cover the fact that there appears to be no political will to go after these people and to address this gross inequality? The Government could simply impose a super-levy on pensions over €100,000 per year and, in fact, on all incomes over €100,000 per year. Why does it not do that? A 10% levy on all incomes over €100,000 per year would yield €2 billion extra in taxes and do away with the need for all the attacks on working people, the poor and the vulnerable. Why does the Government not do that and address this injustice?

I agree with Deputy Boyd Barrett that people have suffered as a result of what has happened to this country, the way Fianna Fáil mismanaged our economy and the way the banking system was dealt with. People have suffered loss of employment, loss of businesses and the loss of services in education, health and elsewhere. They are justifiably angry when they see some of the people who were responsible for that, including people who worked in the banking system, walking away with huge pensions or retaining huge salaries within the banking system. There is political will to deal with this. That is the reason the Minister for Finance has undertaken the review of salaries in all of the banks covered by the bank bailout and by taxpayers' money. He is looking at a range of options.

The Deputy asked why we do not impose a 10% levy on pensions of over €100,000 per year. It would be good if the Deputy paid attention to what happens in the House. In July this year, my colleague the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, brought a Bill before the House, which was passed, to impose a levy of not 10% but 20% on pensions over €100,000.

The Deputy did not even miss it.

The Tánaiste did not listen to me. I said it should be imposed on all incomes. Instead of further attacking working people, the poor and the vulnerable by imposing cuts in health and education and increasing student registration fees, why does the Government not impose a 10% super-levy on all incomes over €100,000 per year in the budget? That would yield a clawback not just from people who worked in the public service, politics or in the banks earning gross pensions but from all the people in the golden circle who are being insulated from the impact of austerity, rather than attacking the vulnerable and people who have been unjustly battered and hammered with the cost of the current financial crisis. If there is political will on this matter why does it prove to be very effective when it comes to attacking lone parents, making disability cuts and cuts in health, education and social welfare, but it appears to be far less effective when addressing the gross inequalities in wealth, income and pensions in this country? Where are the results of the political will if the Tánaiste says it exists?

This Government's political will is that the days of golden circles in this country are over. There will be no insulation of golden circles under this Government.

We will see to that. The issues being considered for the budget will be announced on budget day. Given Deputy Boyd Barrett's past record, it does not matter what the Government will announce on budget day, Deputy Boyd Barrett will oppose it anyway. There is no tolerance by the Government for golden circles of past or present banks. There is no insulation of golden circles. We are dealing with pay and pensions in the banking system and we will produce a budget that is fair and balanced on budget day. I hope the Deputy will support it.