Yesterday, there was a tale of two Irelands. On one hand, there was the Ireland of the highly paid and the rich. In this case, I am referring to the top 1% of civil servants who are on €150,000 or more a year. The Government was out across the media to justify pay increases of €15,000, €20,000, €30,000 or more for some of the highest earners in the country. Secretaries General of Departments will get a raise of almost €40,000. This will bring their total pay up to €250,000 per year. The total annual cost of these increases will be €60 million. On the other hand, the Government had a very different message for low- and middle-income workers. There will be no immediate pay increase in July. The Government did not say it will have to do something about their pay because it is legally bound to do so. No. The message to the low- and middle-income workers is that they will have to wait and that there will be no action until the budget. There is an insulting pay offer to public sector workers, which amounts to 3.5% in a year at a time when inflation stands at 8%. In other words, workers are being asked to sign up for a significant pay cut.

This morning the ESRI warned that Irish households face the biggest drop in living standards since the 2008 crisis, but the Government continues to say it can do precious little. That is a political choice. A different choice is entirely possible. The Government says it is bound by the 2017 legislation. That is legislation against which People before Profit voted. However, the Government could bring in new legislation next Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. It can say there continues to be a financial emergency for ordinary people and the one in three people who are living in energy poverty and say that it will not, at the moment, pay the already well-paid even more.

Workers in both the public sector and the private sector need a pay rise. If they do not get a raise equal to or higher than the rate of inflation, they will experience a cut in their living standards.

There is a reason that Mick Lynch, the leader of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers has become such a popular figure, including in this country. Not only is he unflappable in the face of ridiculous right-wing media questioning, he also represents the fact that when workers are struggling, they look at the idea that when they get organised, they have power. That is what we need to see here in order to see wage increases being won. Instead of massive pay increases for the top 1%, the Government needs to take action now to protect low- and middle-income workers from the cost of living and housing crises. We need price controls on essential goods to stop the spiralling costs. We need wage increases at least equal to the rate of inflation for public and private sector workers. We must raise the minimum wage immediately to raise the wage floor for all. Will the Tánaiste prioritise low- and middle-income workers instead of the highest-paid?

What the Deputy describes is, quite simply, a misrepresentation of the facts that does not describe what is going to happen on 1 July. For those who are interested in the facts - I know most people are genuinely interested in the facts - I am going to set them out. First, this is not a pay increase; it is pay restoration. It is the reversal of pay cuts that happened more than ten years ago. Ten or 12 years ago, there were pay cuts across the board in the public sector. Those on the highest salaries had the deepest pay cuts for the longest period. This is the last group that is having its pay restored. It is not a pay increase; it is the reversal of a pay cut and pay restoration. If it was any other group involved, that is how the Deputy would describe it.

The Deputy stated that these people are civil servants. Again, that is not factually correct. Some 90% of them are doctors. Those doctors are public servants. They are working in our public hospital system. If I accompanied the Deputy to one of the maternity hospitals throughout the State today, the only person who would not have had his or her pay restored would be the one who performed a caesarean section at 4 a.m. If I accompanied him to one of the busy accident and emergency departments in any of our public hospitals, the only person who would not have had his or her pay restored would be the consultant doing the rounds and trying to get patients off trolleys and into beds. If I accompanied him to the children's hospital in Crumlin, just down the road from here, and we went to the orthopaedic operating theatre, the only person there who would not have had pay restored would be the person performing the scoliosis operation. These are people who are hard to recruit and retain. They are well sought after around the world. They are the last people to have their pay restored. That is what is happening. The way the Deputy tried to represent the position is simply non-factual.

On the wider issue of public sector pay, the Government believes that all public servants deserve a pay increase. We have already agreed a pay increase of between 2% and 3% this year, plus or minus an increment, and we accept that is not enough in light of the cost of living. That is why we are engaging with public sector unions on an agreement for a better pay increase than that, not just for this year but also for next year. As the unions rightly point out, there are three elements to this. It is not just about how much somebody is paid; it is about how much he or she gets to take home after tax and how far the money goes. That is what the unions refer to as the social wage. The space is there for an agreement if we take into account those three aspects.

When is a pay increase not a pay increase? Is it when a person is on over €150,000 a year? The Secretaries General of the Departments led by Ministers took home €210,000 each last year. Over the next 12 months, they will take home €250,000 each. In anybody's money, that is a pretty significant pay increase year on year.

In the context of the points relating to hospitals, the truth is if we want to attract and retain health professionals, we need to have pay equality in the health service. We should not overwork staff in the overly pressurised environment of our currently underfunded health service. We need to tackle the housing crisis and get people to come work in a national health service. That is the answer and what the studies show. People do not need to be on €250,000 a year to do a job in our health service. People will want to work in our health service if they feel they can contribute to a real public service.

The Government is moving immediately to increase the pay of the highest earners and saying to ordinary people that they have to wait. They cannot wait. Thousands of people were out on the streets last Saturday and tens of thousands of people will come out if the Government does not move now in respect of pay increases for ordinary workers and price controls to stop the cost of living and housing crises.

To answer the Deputy's question, a pay increase is not a pay increase when in 2022 a person ends up earning the same as he or she did in 2012. It is the reversal of a pay cut. It is pay restoration. The Deputy may choose to misrepresent them, but those are the facts.

I heard the Deputy speaking on the radio yesterday. One thing I have to say is that I respect his sincerity. He believes in an ideology, namely, socialism, and I respect that. Nevertheless, he made two statements that are totally wrong. He mentioned price controls. We know the world over what happens when price controls are introduced. We end up with supply problems and rationing. It is what happened in the Soviet Union, eastern Europe and other places when it was tried. I also heard the Deputy say we should have a maximum wage and nobody should earn more than €150,000 a year. That is fair enough; that is the Deputy's view but I disagree with it. If that happened, there would be a brain drain of talent from the State. It is what happens in socialist countries around the world when they attempt this. We would see investment from multinationals and foreign direct investment either dying off and, perhaps, being removed altogether. The cake would then get smaller and there would be less for everyone. That is what happens when socialism is attempted in the genuine and sincere way the Deputy would try to do it.