Defence of Taoiseach’s salary
Senator Norris rejects Senator Daly’s criticism of the Taoiseach’s salary, calling it cheap populism and arguing that the Taoiseach’s responsibilities justify his pay; the exchange is repeatedly ruled to order.
I did not associate the Senator with them.
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I do not know why the Senator is dissociating himself from comments with which I did not associate him.
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That is such a fatuous piece of rubbish. The Senator is just squawking away like an old hen.
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If that is not the kettle calling the pot black.
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The Senator knew what to expect from him.
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That kind of cheap populism is worthy of the worst of the red top newspapers. The Taoiseach is worth every single penny and this kind of attack by politicians on one another brings the entire profession into disrepute. What does he get? Some €12,000 per month, €144,000 or €150,000 per year. He is running the country, making decisions that affect it and the well-being of every citizen and dealing with middle-range business people who have considerably more than him. There are people employed by the Government who earn considerably more than him. It is a nonsense to start carping at the amount of money the Taoiseach earns. Of course, one can say someone on the minimum wage would take the figures badly and so forth, but that has always been the situation. There are gradations. By establishing the Low Pay Commission, the Government is doing something to address the situation over which previous Governments sat and did nothing. I applaud this.
I do not agree with the Government's financial policies but to paraphrase Shakespeare, we are so far gone in gore or whatever it is that returning "were as tedious as go o'er". We are on a course. It appears that it will be successful within its own limits. Let us stick with it. Do not change horses mid-stream and do not have politicians endlessly attacking one another. The popular media will do that for us. They will go for wages, income and all the rest of it. I deprecate this. I work hard. Everyone in this Chamber does. We earn the money that the citizens have decided is appropriate for us. The Taoiseach has taken a cut of 40%. What more does Senator Mark Daly want from him or us? It is ridiculous for politicians to attack one another when there are serious problems confronting the country and when, in the scale of business, the Taoiseach is getting a reasonable income for a very onerous job, for all the worry and for confronting all of the problems that he and the Government inherited. I do not agree with him, but I commend him.