The Progressive Democrat deputy Ms Fiona O'Malley has pledged to reject her pay rise under the benchmarking deal unless the Dáil resumes after Christmas considerably earlier than the planned January 27th return. Mark Brennock, Chief Political Correspondent, reports.
Ms O'Malley said last night that TDs must "lead by example" with the Government seeking changes in work practices from the Civil Service as part of the benchmarking process.
The way to do this was to have shorter holidays, she told The Irish Times. "If we don't, I'll be writing to Charlie McCreevy telling him to hold on to my benchmarking increase because I haven't earned it."
This week the Government chief whip, Ms Hanafin, announced that the Dáil would adjourn for almost six weeks for the Christmas break from December 18th to January 27th. Under the benchmarking deal, TDs are to receive an 11.7 per cent increase, half of which is to be paid from January 1st next.
Ms O'Malley's comments yesterday came as Green Party deputy Mr Paul Gogarty repeated his call for TDs and senators to accept a pay freeze. But he said he won't be "the eejit who unilaterally takes a cut myself".
Mr Gogarty said that if all Oireachtas members sacrificed their recent 4 per cent pay rise, they would have more credibility when talking about the need for others to accept cuts. A "collective gesture" was what was required.
Mr Gogarty, who also told the Dáil on Wednesday that the Oireachtas expenses regime amounted to a "urination" on the less well-off said yesterday he had been circumspect in his use of language because he was speaking in the chamber. What he had meant, he explained to The Irish Times yesterday, was that "people just feel they are being pissed on". However, senators objected bitterly to his remarks. On the Seanad order of business yesterday Senator Joe O'Toole took "grave exception to the cheap attempts by a single member to try to demean the work of members in an unfair, unchallenged and cheap way".
Mr Gogarty was also criticised by Fianna Fáil senators Mr John Hanafin and Mr Labhras Ó Murchu, Senator Brendan Ryan (Labour), Senator David Norris (Independent) and Senator Michael Finucane (Fine Gael) who accused Mr Gogarty, a recently-elected 34-year-old deputy of "coming here in an open-necked shirt and criticising politicians with such rhetoric".
However, Mr Gogarty contrasted the slack monitoring of expenses claimed by politicians with the vigour applied to policing welfare payments to the less well-off.