Bertie’s 140% pay rise in 10 years

IT is disgusting to see highly-paid politicians, pundits and HSE public relations spinners condemning hard-working, underpaid nurses.

A typical example was on RTE’s Questions & Answers on April 2 where all six pontificators — panel and presenter — were probably paid three to 10 times more than the nurses they criticised.

The Taoiseach, Tánaiste and cabinet members have received 24 pay increases since they took office in 1997.

The 24 increases comprise routine awards under the national wage agreements, benchmarking and special awards for higher-level public officials.

The Taoiseach’s salary has increased from €112,159 in 1997 to just under €266,492 today — a rise of almost 140%. In the same period, the average industrial wage has risen from €19,300 to just over €32,000, an increase of less than 60%. Ten years ago, the Taoiseach was paid six times the average industrial wage. But today that gap has widened to 8.5 times the wage of an average Irish worker. And nurses did not benefit from a €50,000 dig-out from rich friends or an €8,000 whip-round from Manchester businessmen or pick-me-ups from rich developers.

And the hours? We know Bertie does a lot of openings — pubs and beauty salons — and he canvasses a lot, but other people do this in their own time.

He spends half of Tuesday and all of Wednesday in the Dáil. He takes Thursday off, with the agreement of Pat Rabbitte, and all ministers take Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday off.

Dr Seán Marlow

90 Willow Park Road

Dublin 11