This Government makes me sick, Im even sick of the Word water at this stage. Here are some interesting statistics below if you have a minute or two .... Enda Kenny makes €185,350 a year (€3,564 per week) - plus tens of thousands of allowances. Joan Burton is on €184,405 (€3,546 per week - plus allowances). Ministers are getting €157,540 a year (€3,029 per week - plus allowances). TDs are on €92,672 a year (€1,782 per week - plus allowances). The average TDs pension is €46,336 a year, which equates to a pension fund of €1,853,440. These people discuss water charges, property taxes and other issues in media interviews and panel discussions. A typical panel discussion on water charges might include a government minister (€157,540 a year + allowances), a couple of opposition TDs (€92,672 a year + allowances) and a senior journalist such as Bryan Dobson (€198,000 a year). Panel discussions are led and moderated by media personalities such as Marian Finucane (€295,000 a year), Joe Duffy (€300,000 a year), Miriam OCallaghan (€211,000 a year) and Pat Kenny (€630,000 a year). These issues are also discussed in newspapers such as the Irish Independent (CEO: €627,000 a year) and the Irish Times (Editor: €319,000 a year). Meanwhile, half of Irish people have a gross annual income of less than €18,000 a year (€346 per week). Over 1.5 million individuals (40%) have a gross income between €10,000 and €30,000 per annum and the average - among ALL individuals in Ireland - is €26,800 a year (€515 per week). The median wage in Ireland (i.e. half earn more, half less) is €25,871 (€497 per week), while the average (skewed upwards by the better-paid) is €32,400 a year (€623 per week). My point is that our public representatives, our policy-makers, and the facilitators of our public conversations are completely, wholly and totally out of touch with the financial reality of most Irish people. They may have an intellectual awareness of financial insecurity and stress, and some of them may have experienced it in the past, but they do not live it and they do not feel it. And this emotional blindness affects their assumptions, their biases, their passions, their prejudices and their priorities on a day-to-day basis. They may intellectually know why the water charge protestors are marching (for example), and some of them may even support those protestors. But their vast incomes insulate them from feeling and thus fully understanding that anger. Former Labour leader Pat Rabbitte (€1,782 per week down recently from €3,029 per week + allowances + huge pension) recently said that he feared for the future of Irish politics following the election of the two independent anti-austerity candidates. What he actually fears is the unknown, because he cannot comprehend the lives of those voted for those candidates in any meaningful way. In absolute terms the vast salaries paid to politicians and media presenters are a miniscule part of the national budget. But in human and social terms these salaries destroy the very foundation of our democracy and of our public discourse. ( Graham C )
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 05:14:04 +0000
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