Politicians' salaries and days off - no comparison with the nurses

It is disgusting to see highly paid politicians, pundits and HSE PR spinners condemning hard-working, underpaid nurses. A typical example was on RTE's Questions & Answers on 2 April, where all six pontificators [panel + presenter] were probably paid up to ten times more than the nurses they criticised.
The Taoiseach, Tanaiste and cabinet members have received 24 pay increases since they took office in 1997. The 24 increases comprise routine awards under the national wage agreements, benchmarking and special awards for higher level public officials.

The Taoiseach's salary has increased from €112,159 in 1997 to just under €266,492. today – a rise of almost 140 per cent. In the same period, the average industrial wage has risen from €19,300 to just over €32,000, an increase of less than 60 per cent. 10 years ago, the Taoiseach was paid six times the average industrial wage. But today, that gap has widened to 8.5 times the wage of an average Irish worker.

And nurses did not benefit from a €50,000 dig-out from enriched friends or a €8,000 whip-round from Manchester businessmen or pick-me-ups from rich developers.

And the hours? We know Bertie does a lot of openings of pubs, off-licences and beauty salons and he canvasses a lot but other people do this in their own time. He spends half of Tuesday and all of Wednesday and that's it, in the Dail. He takes Thursday off with the agreement of Pat Rabbitte and all the Ministers take Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday off.

Sean Marlow, Dublin 11