Hello everyone
Hello everyone. Well, so many people in our society are struggling and at the same time we've seen over 300,000 public sector workers take the picket lines right across the country yesterday. Today, October 14th, Irish appeared before the Public Accounts Committee in Leinster House. Now, there was a number of startling revelations during this committee hearing and most notably by Niall Gleeson. He's the chief executive officer of Irish Water. Now, it's been revealed that he has been paid 391,953.
Euro this year. Puts him well inside the top 1% of income earners in Ireland. The salary has gone up over 118,000 in the past year. If you consider his raise, that's more than 95% of the workers in Ireland are being paid. It's absolutely breathtaking the amount of public money that's been paid across these so-called officials and chief executive officers of these semi-state organizations.
This is at the same time we see so many water outages right across the country, low pressure. You can talk about the massive leaks through the antiquated uh drainage systems we see in Ireland and piping systems as well. And not to mention the lack of investment in basic infrastructure as well as the data centers hoovering up so much of our water, which is so vitally important for all of our existences. But at the same time, more and more.
Money is being pushed towards these highly paid executives within these organizations. And Gleeson countered and said that this was because of an independent review that was brought forward that proposed a number of recommendations and this was signed off by the minister. Surprise, surprise. Public Expenditure Minister was Jack Chambers, which recommended a number of very interesting recommendations. This committee was a senior post remuneration committee that was proposed by then minister Paschal Donohoe before he swaned off to.
His big job in the World Bank and taking over 10 million euro, remember, extra of our public money in advance of him even getting that job. Now, they had a number of recommendations in terms of looking for what they claimed was transparency and to consist about proper pay agreements and arrangements for new chief executive officers of these organizations. And some of those recommendations were absolutely just uh breathtaking. One said that much of the pay to these highly paid chief executive.
Officers has fallen out of line with the market
Officers has fallen out of line with the market. And it much of it is not appropriate or equitable. And they said they need flexibility for many of these state boards now to push forward more salary increases for these chief executive officers and many other highly paid executives within these organizations. We've seen that happen over recent months with the massive increases we've seen to the CEO of ESB, for instance. We've seen it in An Post. We've seen it.
In many aviation organizations, including the Irish Aviation Authority, the Dublin Airport Authority, and Air Nav Ireland, and many others, including the Land Development Agency, who've seen big increases to the CEO's salaries. And this is really fascinating because that senior post remuneration committee was made up of a number of interesting appointees. Uh one was Maeve Carton, who was a ex- worker with CRH. We all know what CRH and the much how much that was has been privatized in terms of the bigger agenda.
Being pushed by the Irish government for years. She's now the chairperson of the National Treasury Management Agency. So, here we go. In terms of investing in our funds in our country's future, she's a safe pair of hands in that position. And which is the same as others other people involved in this was Olson Courtney as well, who's now chair of the board of Erin Roads. Erin a previously with Ibec. Surprise, surprise. And others had which notable.
Industry records working with many of these big employer groups as well and working as part of the fabric and institutions of the corrupt Irish establishment. But this is absolutely astounding in terms of what's being paid out of the public purse to these so-called semi-states. And we all know the agenda of these semi-states in terms of pushing the commercial remit about making profit. So, many of them are supposed to be not-for-profit and public services. But this is part of the bigger.
Neoliberal privatization agenda of our basic public public services, pushing them into this private market and again looking for massive salaries for these CEOs which is commensurate with the so-called private market. At the same time, leaving so many people with an antiquated an absolutely disgraceful water system in terms of the infrastructure and not to mention the water shortages, water leaks, and all the issues going on with water pressure all right around the country and lack of connection for people as well. So much.
For accountability and transparency and performance-related…
For accountability and transparency and performance-related bonuses they're getting. And interestingly enough, 97% of employees and those highly paid executives received their bonuses last year. Absolutely astounding, isn't it? And at the same time, the Gleeson revealed today that Irish Water had paid 4,000 euro for media training in advance of this Public Accounts Committee hearing. You would think they'd be well able to answer based on the truth, based on facts, and so much for transparency and honesty. This seems to go to the.
Window because he said they needed to to learn the best answers possible. So, staged public relations spin, nonsense being pushed down the throats of ordinary people and laughing in the faces, essentially, of ordinary working people. And remember, over 13 years ago, Irish Water didn't exist, and we all know that the European Union agenda towards privatizing of water led to the latest of massive demonstrations right around Ireland in terms of the direct actions to stop the water meters going.
In. And we saw the criminalization of those who were protesting because of the disgraceful decision to push water charges. Remember those comments about turning a water down to a trickle and all this nonsense being pushed by the establishment. And they're still laughing in our faces with the amount of money that's been pushed to these CEOs, which are part of the corrupt system here in Ireland. Absolutely outrageous, but this is what's going on right in front of our eyes, all from the public.
Purse. So, thanks again for all the support of my videos, and from Dublin this evening. Slán go fóill. See you all soon. Take care. Bye-bye.
“So, thanks again for all the support of my videos, and from Dublin this evening”
