Paul Hopkins: Are these CEOs and DGs having laugh or what?

Salary rises have just been approved for CEOs at numerous semi-State bodies. Wait for it.... they include a €100,000 pay rise for the CEO of Uisce Éireann, Niall Gleeson. Increases have been sanctioned for CEOs at Dublin Bus, CIÉ, Bus Éireann, and Iarnrod Éireann. This the same Uisce Eireann that saw more than 1,200 pollution incidents in 2025 at its water and wastewater facilities, but only seven resulted in prosecutions. Tap water in many parts of the country is not drinkable, all year round, with its awful brown discolouration – and pressure drops to a drip-drip. Bottled water has never had it so good.

A database of incidents details problems with spillages, overflows of human waste, and hundreds of exceedances for chemicals like ammonia and nitrates. What gives, Mr Gleeson?

Then there is our public transport. Trains delayed, leaves on the tracks; ghost buses (the ones that never show up), and the ones that do often commandeer too much road space – and our transport fares one of the dearest in Europe. Anti-social and threatening behaviour on Iarnrod Éireann and on the Dublin Luas.

Admittedly, it's not all the transport companies' fault. There's a lot of reasons but probably the biggest is our love affair with the car. Bus routes cannot be fast if roads are full of cars and people often won't use buses unless they're fast. The roads are full because a lot our urban design follows the US model of zoning, rather than a mixed-use models, which has lead to generations of people growing up in a culture of driving everywhere for everything (mostly because they've had no choice).

Solutions are difficult but not impossible. Take rail investment: rail isn't impacted by car traffic mixed-use zoning. Where's that 8.05 to Navan?

Mistakenly, we designed modern Ireland around the private car for some unknown reason, and now slowly, and unambitiously, we're trying to fix that.

Meanwhile, the Board of RTÉ is seeking a pay increase for Director General Kevin Bakhurst, which may bring his salary to €300,000. What now for its celebrity hosts who, after the Tubridy Affair, had their lucrative salaries maxed at €250,000. Will others now follow Claire Byrne?

Are these CEOs and DGs having laugh or what?

All of this galls, top brass raking in another €100,000, as a new survey shows four out of 10 people say they do not have any money left at the end of the month to put into savings, according to digital bank Monzo. A survey for the bank found that 65 per cent of adults plan to save more this year, but a third of those who are already savers are earning no interest on their money.

The research, conducted by Censuswide found that 39 per cent of respondents said they have no money left at the end of the month.

With food prices continuing to grow and inflation rising, January/February is typically the time when shoppers reset their household budgets, and this year was no different,” says Worldpanel’s Emer Healy. “While grocery sales continued to grow, rising inflation meant that value remained front of mind for consumers.”

The retail analyst's survey show many households were €3,000 worse off over the course of 2025, January to January. Healy said their study also suggested that more shoppers in Ireland were finding the economic climate tough, with 31 per cent saying they are struggling to make ends meet.

“This is no surprise.. .rising grocery inflation means that consumers are increasingly feeling the pinch” Healy said. After grocery spending hit a record high in December, shoppers looked to rein in costs in January, a trend that would typically boost the share of own-label products.

Food spending and the volume sold on promotion in the latest 12-week period remained at a low of just 19.6 per cent, suggesting shoppers were managing their budgets through everyday choices rather than increased promotional purchasing.

While that current rate is better than the 17 per cent that was recorded at the height of the cost-of-living crisis in 2023, the latest increases are on top of the earlier hikes and the combined impact sees many households worse off. €100,000 would easily fix that and more.

But, sure who am I kidding? Just one percent of Irish employees earn €300,000 a year, 12 per cent €100,000, with 45 per cent earning less than €40,000, according to the CSO.

Meanwhile, 145,000 – six per cent of workers – live below the poverty line.