It’s up to the people to stop obscene pay hikes

I LEFT Ireland for Spain when Charlie Haughey was in power.

Indeed it’s possible to say I left Ireland because Charlie Haughey was in power.

Back in Dublin last weekend for a wedding, I was so incensed by news of the pay hike to top politicians and civil servants that, before catching my flight back, I went to the Fianna Fáil Dublin South-East constituency office on South Richmond Street to air my views.

According to the notice posted on the window, it would be open from 2pm to 6pm on that day. I knocked on the door, but there was no reply. So, effectively, the electorate and taxpayers were abandoned — an indication of the contempt with which FF treats the citizenry.

I went to a shop across the street, bought a marker and wrote on the office front window: “Far too much, Bertie.”

The proposed increase is obscene. The Spanish prime minister earns €92,000 a year. The public health service in Spain is dramatically better than in Ireland.

If we, the plain people of Ireland, wherever we are living, make our voices heard, we cannot alone stop these outrageous pay increases, but substantially reduce the salaries of senior politicians and public servants to levels appropriate to a country the size of Ireland, and also put an end to the wretched abuse of power by recent governments. And we have to do it ourselves. The political class will not do it for us.

Kevin Cotter

Calle Sant Pau 96, 51

08001 Barcelona

Spain