Madam, – As the Oireachtas finally gets around to constituting new parliamentary committees, it is worth asking why the chairmen and chairwomen of these committees are to be rewarded with an extra €10,000 on top of their parliamentary salaries.
I work as a university lecturer and sit on a large number of internal institutional committees and external bodies. I neither expect nor receive additional payments for this work as I consider it part of my service both to my own university and to the public good.
Why should TDs and Senators, already among the best paid parliamentarians in the world, receive additional remuneration to take up a committee chairmanship?
Given the scale of cuts foisted on lower paid employees in both the public and private sectors, it is unacceptable for the Oireachtas to go on acting as a privileged club, where a “jobs for the boys” culture still prevails, and where members of parliament have to be persuaded via monetary inducement to take on tasks which in most workplace settings would constitute a central part of one’s normal workload.
It is time for these senior parliamentarians to take a lead and forsake this additional remuneration in the interests of national solidarity. – Yours, etc,