People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy has said that pay rises for highly paid civil servants, whilst the government rejects calls from PBP to intervene in the cost of living crisis is a “slap in the face to ordinary workers who are seriously struggling.”
With inflation predicted to go over 8% in the near future and the cost of fuel, food, energy and rent soaring, People Before Profit say that the government must now step in and prevent these increases for highly paid civil servants from going ahead- a measure that could save €60 million.
He reiterated calls from PBP for the government to intervene now and provide radical and far reaching support for people who are being hammered by the cost of living crisis.
He said: “This news is a slap in the face to ordinary workers who are seriously struggling. People all over this country are being hammered with the cost of living crisis. Inflation, prices, rents, the cost of food and energy are having a seriously detrimental impact on people and their ability to get by.
“In the very same week we see the government flatly refusing to step in and help ordinary people, we can see when pay rises for very well paid civil servants are flagged, the government shrugs its shoulders and says ‘nothing we can do’. This is in a context of one in three families being in energy poverty, according to the ESRI.
“If the government were to intervene and prevent these rises for well paid civil servants it could save the state €60 million which could be redirected and targeted to people in energy poverty to provide them with some relief, for example.”