During a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance and the Public Service, I said:  I thank all the delegates for their presentations. Some of the details they have given have opened my eyes. I think it was Dr. Colm McCarthy who said we were not short of compassion but of cash...

It sounds great but every proposal he has made will draw howls of protest from those affected. If we cut costs, we will affect everybody in some way or other. To be compassionate, the State should try to avoid hurting those most in need.

While Dr. McCarthy has shown us many figures, I have not seen this one: if we are told we must reduce our standards, whether in pay, family income, unemployment or jobseeker’s allowance or the old age pension, we will say it is outrageous and that we are going back to a terrible situation but it seems unlikely that we will be set back more than ten years. I assume we will go back to our standard of living in 1999. Can Dr. McCarthy give us some comparison between our standard of living then and now? If we take these cuts of €4 billion, will it bring us back to our standard of living in 1999?

When I look at the number of cars on the road, our standard of living seems far beyond that of ten years ago. Many more are working now than ten years ago. Is it possible to put a figure on this, to tell people that if they are taking a cut in pay as an employee of the State, or in their social welfare allowance, they are going back only a certain number of years in terms of their standard of living? If people can live with this, it would help us to avoid those who are howling that it is outrageous to expect them to take a cut. They say they did not cause the problem and ask why should they take a cut.

I am elected by the NUI and Dr. McCarthy has proposed abolishing it. The NUI tells me his figures are wrong. He claims it would save €3 million but the NUI states it received only €12,000 last year. Dr. McCarthy may have answered that question when he said some of his recommendations would not save a lot of money. The NUI is 100 years old and it would be a shame to lose that institution, apart from the fact that it elects me to the Seanad.

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