Secretarial assistants pay
Senator Ruane supported better pay for secretarial assistants, arguing that fair pay is essential to retaining experienced staff and maintaining the House’s efficiency.
I have generally called Sinn Féin first but the groups are of equal strength. It is at the discretion of the Chair and this morning Senator Ruane indicated first. Senator Conway-Walsh will understand.
Comment on this
I do not know whether I second the Leader's motion on secretarial pay, which is being taken without debate, now or at the end of the Order of Business. It is brilliant to see that everybody in the Chamber has come together to place a real value on the work of the people who make our work possible. I was thinking about why it is so important. It is not only because people deserve to be paid well but because the efficiency of this House relies on a level of knowledge and experience. If one does not pay the people who work within one's office well, one will have a constant turnover and constantly lose that level of experience and knowledge that a person working in the office brings, with the substantial workload that those people do. I thank everybody in the Chamber for lending their support to that.
When I knew I was speaking on the Order of Business, as with Senator Clifford-Lee, much was on my mind. I find it very hard in the aftermath of something so wrong and evil happening to a woman. I get a pain in my heart where I struggle to even articulate what it must have been like for that woman, her family and the people in her community. As someone who was no stranger to violence or male control, I find it hard to find the words to even begin to express the anger and collective trauma that the women of Ireland often feel when something unjust, wrong and violent happens to another woman and another mother. I would like to remember that today and second what Senator Clifford-Lee has said about it. I know we have domestic violence legislation but we need to look at how that is impacting or not impacting on the issue and how we can begin to address, in a real way, violence against women in their homes and in general.