ESB bills won’t worry ministers

THE Taoiseach should hang his head in shame for approving huge pay increases for himself and his cabinet colleagues at the very time last week that ordinary people were told they face huge rises in their ESB bills.

The increases for the politicians will more than adequately offset their bigger ESB bills but poor people and even those on average incomes have no such cushion.

While the poor are being driven even deeper into poverty and ordinary people struggle to pay their bills, those who govern them will be drawing salaries (including expenses) of over €250,000 a year. This is obscene money for any individual, and it is a scandal that the politicians have voted through this rise for themselves without any concern for the ordinary people who are unable to pay basic bills. By their selfish action the politicians are further adding to a two-tier Ireland where one set of people have all the power and wealth while everyone else is forced to exist in a rip-off economy without any price controls.