Order of Business - 19th February 2009

Order of Business 19th February 2009

Senator David Norris: I have the highest respect for my colleague, Senator MacSharry, but the present Government has been in power for so long that, accident or not, it has presided over a situation where the four pillars of society have come into disrepute, the church, the law, the banks and politics. Not a single one of them can stand with its head high in this State. That is partly because the Government has been in power for too long and it has become too lax. We have heard about tweaking the pensions Bill, but one thing is certain, the people will tweak the Government at the first opportunity.
As regards the pensions Bill, I would support the Government in taking hard decisions, and so would the people of Ireland, but they will not do it when there is an unsteady hand on the tiller and when there is complete uncertainty and total amateurishness in evidence. Unfortunately - I hate to have to say it - this is what has happened. The pensions reserve Bill has been instanced.
I was in this House before Christmas, at the time of the budget, when the Minister for Finance gave an undertaking that the weakest, the poor, the children, the needy etc. would be preserved. Now early in the new year we have the pensions reserve legislation, under section 17 of which early child care supplement is to be cut by 10% and the entitlement of children is to be terminated six months early. This is an extraordinary abandonment of the weakest people in society.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach: Does the Senator support the calls for a debate?
Senator David Norris: I support them strongly for the reasons I have set out. An attempt was made to conceal this measure by sticking it into the final, non-procedural section of the Bill.
I want to address the question of the pensions levy. It is astonishing to me that the Government did not seem to know what it was doing. Two Ministers gave two totally different answers to the question of whether the levy will be gross or net of income. One said it will be gross, whereas the other said it will be net. There is a difference between the two.
Senator Alex White: Half a billion euro.
Senator David Norris: Everybody receives a tax break on pensions. The Government set the levy at 3%, 6% and 10% depending on the rates of taxation. The actual rate is therefore 2%, 5% and 6% because the people on the highest salaries receive the largest tax breaks. That is a difference of €215 million.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach: The Senator can make these points during the debate.
Senator David Norris: These people are obviously asleep at the wheel. Unlike private sector pensions, which are paid directly into a pension fund, public sector pensions were until recently paid from current expenditure. Now that we have the National Pensions Reserve Fund, that is where the money will go. Instead of reducing Government debt, it will top up the emergency fund to get Seán FitzPatrick and the rest out of a hole. That does not gladden my heart.
I ask the Leader to seek comment from the Government on the apparent inability of leading people in the financial sector to tell the truth. We are offered a classic example of this on the front page of The Irish Times of today. A gentleman called Dr. Michael Walsh has resigned, giving as his reason that the institution over which he presided cannot survive without a financial injection from the Government. His board, led by Mr. Michael Fingleton, denies any financial implication. That cannot possibly be true.
Next Monday, Louise O’Keeffe will be persecuted in the Supreme Court for the costs of a case she took, the facts of which are inarguable. She was sexually abused in a church-run school. The church passed the buck to the State, which passed the buck back to the church. She is now being hounded and could lose her home. Even as we let FitzPatrick and the rest of the golden circle, the existence of whom I have no doubt regardless of whether they were in the tent in Galway, off the hook, we persecute an ordinary citizen.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach: Senator Norris, this case is before the courts.
Senator David Norris: I hope to God she goes to the European Court of Justice and we get a bloody nose.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach: We cannot discuss that case while it is before the courts.