Richard Boyd Barrett Condemns Pay Rise for Super Junior Ministers
Richard Boyd Barrett criticised a government decision to increase super junior ministers' salaries by 16,000 euro on top of an existing 124,000 euro, calling the move nauseating and unjustified. He contrasted the pay rise with frontline nurses who, he said, contracted COVID-19 on agency contracts and did not receive sick pay.
Pay rise condemned
He argued the proposed increase - an additional 16,000 euro for super junior ministers already on 124,000 euro a year - was shocking and an insult to public service values.
Frontline nurses and sick pay
He highlighted that nurses recruited on the call for Ireland were placed on agency contracts, infected with COVID-19 while working on a fraction of the salary, and in some cases did not receive sick pay when infected.
Pay inequality highlighted
He reported that when he challenged the minister, the minister defended the rise by invoking "pay equality around the cabinet table." He said this stance exposed a double standard given longstanding pay inequality faced by nurses employed after 2011 and by third-level lecturers who start on lower scales post-2011.
Impact on higher education bill
He said the pay increases had tarnished the government's initiative to establish a new department of higher education and research, describing the move as a backdoor attempt to boost the pay of three already highly paid super junior ministers.
Political and public reaction implied
He framed the decision as hypocritical and an insult to nurses, health-care workers, lecturers and frontline staff, urging readers to consider the disparity between ministerial remuneration and the treatment of essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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It is absolutely nothing short of nauseating that the government would consider it okay to increase the already staggeringly high salaries of super junior ministers from 124,000 euro a year to an additional 16,000 euro. How can they possibly justify that when there were nurses who were infected with COVID-19 on the front line who didn't even get sick pay? That's the reality of it. Nurses recruited on the call for Ireland, put on agency contracts, infected with COVID-19 on a fraction of the salary of these junior ministers, didn't even get sick pay when they got infected with COVID-19 and then we have three junior ministers think they need an additional 16,000 on top of 124,000 euro. It is unbelievable and when I challenged Minister O'Donovan about this yesterday and asked him could he please provide an explanation as to how he thought it was justified to give these pay increases to super junior ministers on top of already high salaries. He said we need pay equality around the cabinet table. Now I think people need to dwell on that fact because our nurses have been fighting for pay equality for years now and it has been refused and resisted. So nurses, because they happen to be employed after 2011, have to work alongside other nurses who do the same job and are paid more. That pay inequality exists for them and the government seems to think that is acceptable for these workers who are actually on the front line fighting to protect our health and our society. But it appears if you're on 124,000 and you're a super junior minister, pay inequality is completely unacceptable. The double standards and hypocrisy of that are shocking beyond belief and they are an insult to our nurses, our health care workers and our front line workers and indeed to others in the higher education area where one of these super junior ministers is. If you're a lecturer, you do, you enter, you enter, if post, post 2-11, you start on less than if it's pre-2011. That's a fact. That pay inequality exists for lecturers in third level education. But it is unacceptable, apparently, for super junior ministers to have to put up with pay inequality. That double standards are absolutely nauseating, minister. So it's a pity you have tarnished a good bill and a good objective of setting up a new department of higher education and research with this backdoor attempt to boost up the salary of three people who are already extortionately well paid. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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