SEANAD REPORT:A FIANNA Fáil member asked how Senators could defend claims for overnight subsistence payments when hotel rooms could cost as little as €10 a night.

There was not meant to be an element of profit for parliamentarians, said Mark Daly (FF). How could they defend cuts in the general public service if they were not prepared to lead the way?

Eoghan Harris (Ind) said he believed that the number of unemployed would reach 700,000 by the end of the year. The political classes did not seem to appreciate how bad the recession was throughout the world. He had recently returned from Britain where he had observed that the midlands were like a wasteland.

Everyone in Ireland was looking for a scapegoat following the end of the boom. “Like alcoholics on a binge, we need to reach rock bottom. We need a reality check before we can rebuild.”

They needed reform and cutbacks, beginning with the political class. There should be serious cuts to salaries and expenses, rather than tinkering with them.

Mr Harris said the present Taoiseach should have cut more deeply into the public service.

There was a lot of talk of fat cats but “every wealthy person in Ireland, Tony O’Reilly, the Smurfits, whoever you want to name, has seen their wealth cut by between 50 and 60 per cent”.

He was struck with absolute disbelief about the case being made for those in the public service.

“I cannot understand how in a world of Dell and the Waterford workers, people in permanent and pensionable employment have so little grasp of reality.”

For every €100 earned by a private sector worker, public sector workers earned €150. “They produce less by 30 per cent, they go sick more often and they are the greatest crowd of self-appointed victims I have ever come across.”

Eugene Regan (FG) said that of the €2 billion in savings planned by the Government for this year, €1.4 billion was to come by way of the public sector pensions levy.

But The Irish Times had reported that, after tax relief, the savings would actually be €900 million; €750 million given that the changes would not come into effect until next month.

This raised the question of whether the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance and officials in the department could count.

Ronan Mullen (Ind) said he was concerned to read a report in The Irish Times of proceedings in the Supreme Court “wherein the State seems to be putting forward as its position that the human embryo does not enjoy any constitutional rights under the definition of ‘unborn’.

“Is the State throwing the case and pre-empting the Supreme Court decision by making this dramatic announcement about what it believes the law should be, without any debate having taken place on the issue in the Oireachtas?

“The Attorney General seems to believe that the human embryo is property, the equivalent of a blood sample. This is moral anarchy.

“It is extraordinarily disturbing that the State seems to be speaking in this way on a very sensitive issue.”

There must be a debate on the matter, said Mr Mullen.