I do not wish to refer to anything said during the interruption of my speech, except to say that I think it is a most unseemly argument to advance to the House that in order to enforce the passage of a Bill of this sort the physical condition of a member of the House is to be taken into account. So far as I can understand the urgency of the measure, it arises from sub-section (5) of Section 8 and from nothing else, so far as I am concerned. As to the manner in which this Bill should be debated, I want to say that, if the principle is accepted, the Committee Stage can be deferred until after Easter so that a detailed consideration of the proposals in the measure can be undertaken by any Deputy who is interested in it and who wishes to advance any particular point of view when the debate on the Committee Stage is taken. I was dealing with Part IV, which may be taken, very largely, to determine the magnitude of the cuts which are imposed upon other members of the public service. I was pointing out that the Government had decided that those in receipt of salaries under £300 per annum would, in all the circumstances, be exempt from any further cuts. But in determining the amount of the deduction to be made from those in receipt of salaries above that figure, the Government had to give very serious consideration, indeed, to the fact that no later than 1st January last, owing to the operation of the cost-of-living figure, which fell substantially, the Civil Service, as a body, had endured a net reduction of £125,000 in their remuneration and, that, in fact, if the original intention of those entering into the agreement for a bonus over the basic salary, the amount of which was to relate to the cost-of-living figure, were to be carried out, the deduction would not be £125,000 per annum as in fact it is, but would be at the rate of £160,000 per annum.
The Government mitigated, so far as employees in receipt of salaries not exceeding £2 a week basic go, the severity of that blow, and that concession will cost the Exchequer no less than £35,000 per year. But as I have said, notwithstanding the concession already given to civil servants, they will still suffer, in the aggregate, a reduction of £125,000 in their remuneration during the current year, due to the fall in the cost-of-living bonus. That fact was taken into consideration when the scale set forth in Part IV of the Bill was drafted.
The same circumstances do not apply to any of the other services. Although corresponding, to some extent with the form in which the Schedules have been prepared, they differ in respect of each service. In regard to each service there were circumstances which had to be taken into consideration but what was aimed at was that, so far as possible, people in corresponding ways, and in receipt of similar salaries, would endure similar cuts. It has happened that owing to certain peculiar factors, particularly in the lower branches of the service, some get off lighter in certain cases than civil servants enjoying corresponding salaries would, but if the table which will be circulated to the House before the Committee Stage is examined properly it will be found that very close corresponding, indeed, has been secured between the deductions that would be made from civil servants and from those in other branches of the public service. For instance, in the case of a civil servant enjoying a present total remuneration of £200 the amount of the deduction, due to the fall in the cost-of-living figure, which that civil servant has now imposed upon him would be £11 7s. per annum. In the case of an unmarried sergeant of the Civic Guard he, if cut in accordance with that part of the Schedule would suffer a deduction of £10 12s. 9d.; and a national teacher, at the same rate of salary, would suffer a deduction of £10 1s. 8d. In the case of a married sergeant of the Gárda the position is much more favourable, and the sacrifice he is asked to face is much lighter and so far as his case goes the amount would be £5 18s. 2d.
In the case of a civil servant enjoying a total salary of £250 per annum, the amount of the deduction which he already endures, owing to the fall in the cost-of-living figure, is £13 3s. In the case of an unmarried station sergeant, on the same rate of pay, the deduction he would suffer would be £11 16s. 4d. per annum. In the case of a national school teacher the amount would be £13 15s. In the case of a civil servant enjoying £400 per annum the total reduction that he will suffer, due to the fall in the cost of living bonus figure, plus the overriding reduction, will be £25 14s. An officer in the Army, with a corresponding salary, will suffer a reduction of £22, while an officer in the Gárda Síochána will suffer a reduction of £20 3s. and a national school teacher, at the same point in the salary scale, will suffer a reduction of £27 10s. In that particular case, I would like to point out, the national school teacher draws what is known as a residual capitation grant which, in most cases, would make the total emoluments he would draw, if he were on a salary scale of £400, exceed £400 per annum and when that fact is taken into consideration it will be found that the deduction the national teacher suffers will correspond to the deduction that the civil servant, on a scale of £400 per annum, would suffer. At the point of £500 the civil servant under this Bill would suffer a deduction of £31 2s.; the officer in the Army, drawing the same pay, would suffer a deduction of £30 per annum; the officer in the Gárda Síochána would suffer a deduction of £27 10s. and the national school teacher would suffer a deduction of £31 7s.
Taking some of the higher salaries, the civil servant enjoying a salary of £1,000 per annum will suffer a deduction of £71 1s. per annum; the officer in the Army will suffer a deduction of £75 per annum and the officer in the Gárda Síochána would suffer a deduction of £68 15s. per annum.