Extravagance must be cut

The National Forum on Europe, which was announced

Senator Maurice Hayes was paid 63,486 to chair the Forum and also received 9,200 in expenses, on top of his 48,000 salary as a Senator.

It’s nice work if you can get it, but questions must be asked about this kind of extravagance.

The Government seems to have no appreciation of scale when it comes to compensating a select few individuals for particular tasks.

At the same time it balks at paying people who are working hard, full-time, to earn what amounts to a fraction of the extra money being given to the select few.

Having witnessed the scandalous amounts awarded to Eircom directors, it is time the public demands a halt to the practice before comparatively similar payments become the norm in the public service.

Such a development would inevitably bankrupt our system of Government.

The whole notion of public service seems to be lost. Nobody is suggesting public servants should not be well paid, but this should be in relation to what people earn in general for their work.

After all, this is a democracy in which the people are the bosses, not the servants, though some of the public servants seem to have forgotten that fundamental fact.

None of this is intended to demean the work of the National Forum on Europe, which began its work in October 2001.

Although Fine Gael initially refused to take part, all of the other parties in the Oireachtas and the independents were represented from the outset. Fine Gael had a change of heart following last year’s general election.

The aim of the forum was “to facilitate a broad discussion of issues relevant to Ireland’s membership of an enlarging Union and to consider the range of topics arising in the context of the debate on the future of

Europe”.

Submissions were sought from interested individuals and various groups, such as the social partners, the churches and political parties both inside and outside of the Oireachtas.

The latter included the Workers’ Party, Socialist Party, the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, Christian Democrats and the Communist Party of Ireland.

There was a broad spectrum of people who campaigned vigorously against the Nice Treaty.

One of the loudest complaints following the initial referendum on the treaty was that people did not understand the issues involved.

The Government was confronted with the challenge of involving people in relevant discussions and the Forum on Europe was one of the main methods chosen.

There can be little doubt of its usefulness. By having the full discussion, voters were able to make up their own minds. While the Forum was indeed a “talking shop”, such dialogue is a necessary part of democracy.

However, paying individuals exorbitant amounts, out of all proportion to the money earned by the people who they really work for, is a bad example and a

dangerous extravagance.