Sir, – Colm Keena (“Public reaction to advisers’ pay indicates need for leadership”, Opinion Analysis, July 5th) explains well why the issue of advisers’ pay is far from being an irrelevant or unimportant detail and is in fact at the heart of the matter when it comes to having trust in government. There is indeed a need for fairness and equity to be done and to be seen to be done.
But there is another factor that equally explains the public’s outrage at politicians and their advisers being perceived to be too highly paid. Mr Keena refers to the trauma of enormous debts, declining incomes and increased taxation. For many people today, even those on the higher end of five-figure earnings, this trauma is real and constant and physically, mentally and emotionally draining. There is a perception that over a certain income limit (notionally around the €100,000 level) things must get a great deal easier.
So it is a very real issue and concern that if we overpay the very people who we hope will make things better – the politicians and their, presumably, even more influential advisers – then they may be insulated from grim reality and may not truly appreciate that things do actually need to be improved, and improved quickly. – Yours, etc,