The Dublin Mid-West Green Party TD, Mr Paul Gogarty, is to give up his benchmarking pay increase.
Mr Gogarty told the Dáil last night that he would not give it to the Exchequer, "but to those organisations affected directly by the cutbacks".
Having been critical of the productivity levels of TDs in the past, he said that he was still being accused of hypocrisy for not forgoing the increase.
Politicians, he added, needed to increase public goodwill.
"I ask deputies and senators to consider forgoing their benchmarking pay rise as a gesture to those less well-off. We are approaching Christmas, and although it is a bit of a cliché, I hope some of the Christmas spirit will emerge. When everyone else has to make sacrifices, deputies and senators should also make a sacrifice."
Mr Gogarty said that in the absence of productivity, members of the Oireachtas should give up their increase, collectively, as a gesture towards those who earned less in a week on social welfare "than we get in unvouched expenses for turning up for work."
