Seacht mí ó shin, cuireadh Rialtas an Aire ar an eolas go raibh Airí, daoine atá íoctha suas le €200,000, i bhfad níos mó ná gnáthoibrithe na tíre seo, tar éis an iomarca pá a fháil. Seacht mí ar aghaidh, tá a fhios againn anois go bhfuil deichniúr Aire sa Rialtas seo nach bhfuil tar éis pingin rua den airgead sin a thabhairt ar ais. Ba chóir dúinn a bheith ionraic faoi cad go díreach atá i gceist anseo. Ní airgead an Rialtais ná airgead na Roinne é. Is airgead an phobail é, airgead cáiníocóirí na tíre seo.
Seven months ago, the Government was informed that Ministers, people who are already handsomely paid - far more than average workers - have been overpaid. Seven months on, we now know that ten serving Ministers have not paid back a single red cent. They have not arranged a repayment plan, settled their account or even taken the most basic steps of returning money that never belonged to them in the first place. On top of that, we know that 17 former Ministers have not repaid what they owe either. A total of 27 individuals who have held high office, some of whom still hold high office, who know better, who earn salaries and pensions far out of reach of the ordinary person, are still sitting on taxpayers' money. Let us call it what it is. This is not the Government's money. This is not the Department's money. It is the public's money. It is taxpayers' money. The shocking thing is that the public only came to learn about this yesterday after my question to the Minister, Deputy Chambers, in the finance committee. His explanation, if you could call it one, is that there is ongoing follow-up with the Ministers. Seven months later, and there is ongoing follow-up. Only in this Government could a phrase like that be used to justify a complete absence of urgency, discipline, accountability or consequence.
Let us be clear about the contrast here. If ordinary workers or pensioners are overpaid by the Department of Social Protection, through no fault of their own, they are not given seven months to agree to pay it back. What happens in the real world is very simple. The Department acts without delay. That is the experience of ordinary people right across the State. Why is it one rule for ordinary people and another rule for Government Ministers? Why is the ordinary worker or pensioner given little or no time, yet the Ministers, some of them on up to €200,000, think it is okay for them not to repay the public the tens of thousands of euro they were overpaid?
These are not trivial sums. We are not talking about small numbers. We are talking about amounts of up to €30,000 that are owed by individual current Ministers and still, they could not be bothered to pay back even one red cent. These are the same Ministers who decided the recent budget, a budget that left ordinary, working people worse off in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. All the while, they are sitting on public money that does not belong to them, that they were asked to repay seven months ago, and that they have not repaid. These are the Minister's colleagues. God knows, they could be sitting beside him. What exactly are these Ministers waiting for? What is the Government going to do about this scandal? Will the Minister tell us today when every single cent of this public money will be paid back? There must be no vague assurances and no ongoing follow-up. Crucially, will the Minister please tell the Irish public what defence the Government offers that ten current Government Ministers have neither paid back this money nor even made an arrangement to pay back this money seven months after they were requested to do so?
