We should all live life by the Paul Murphy Principle

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

In years to come, it may be known as the Paul Murphy Principle – the inability to pay for things like everyone else because you’re too busy dividing up your big salary into different pots.

This a man who is ostensibly on €87,000 a year as a Dáil deputy – before you take expenses into the equation – hasn’t enough money to pay for a legal brief to defend himself for his part in a contretemps with the former Tanaiste.

You’ll have no doubt read that Mr Murphy donates a significant portion of his Dáil salary to campaigns such as the anti-water movement and to the Socialist Party and Anti-Austerity Alliance.

He then takes home €1,800 a month, after tax, in what is described as a “young worker’s wage”.

Thus, despite earning well over twice the average industrial wage, Paul Murphy is regarded as a hard case by the courts – and we must pay for his defence when he faces charges over the Joan Burton affair.

He doesn’t have to ask the Socialist Party or the Anti-Austerity Alliance for a few quid of his own money back – not when there’s ordinary eejits out there who have no choice other than to foot the bill.

Inadvertently, Deputy Murphy may have done the state some service – because we can use this tactic ourselves when facing a big bill; we can simply say that, when we’re finished spending our wages on stuff that interests us, we haven’t a red cent left.

For example, I like to donate a substantial part of my salary to Allied Irish Banks in gratitude for their acquiescence when I asked them for a loan to buy my house.

I also believe in donating a portion to providing food and heating for the family and I like to contribute a few quid to the drinks sector every so often as well.

I’ve even been known to help out the restaurant and fast food sector with generous donations – sometimes, it should be admitted, immediately after making my contribution to the drinks industry.

All of this leaves me with considerably less than “a young worker’s wage” to spend on other bills, something that – given the court’s decision to grant free legal aid to a man on €87,000 a year – I hope will cut me some slack with the state on things like property tax and water charges.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.