It's the quote . . . paraphrased from Luke 12:48 . . . that encapsulated the presidency of John F Kennedy and, more than 40 years later, it is still applicable.

We don't know if it was a sentiment that was much in evidence in St Luke's, the constituency headquarters of Bertie Ahern, where large sums of cash given in gifts and loans to the Taoiseach were kept in the safe in the 1990s. Perhaps the Mahon tribunal will tell us one day.

But in a broader context it recognises that there are grave burdens and responsibilities associated with leading a country and it explains why a pay-rise is deserving to the highest office in the land. The consequences of the Taoiseach's actions have consequences for all of the citizens of the republic. The price for such performance is high, if not perhaps as high as 310,000 . . . a salary which, famously now, is the highest in western democracy.

The chief justice deserves his increase. It is his burden to know the quality of being just. He deals in righteousness and lawfulness underpinned by moral principles. To act fairly in difficult circumstances is burdensome. Similarly, the judiciary deserve increases in line with the judgement required for their jobs.

Salary increases for civil servants and government advisors are a little harder to reconcile. In many instances we don't know or understand much about their jobs. And they are not held to account in the same way elected members of the Oireachtas are.

But we can accept they are important cogs in the wheels of government and deserve to be remunerated accordingly.

The Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector found that pay in many public-sector posts was below levels in the private sector, even when allowance was made for the higher value of their public-sector pensions.

The general thrust of the six-member body's report was that people with higher responsibilities should get larger increases . . . hence 14% bringing Bertie Ahern up to 310,000, 15.6% for Brian Cowen bringing him to 270,000 and 15.6% for the chief justice John Murray bringing him to 310,000.

It's a sentiment St Luke would no doubt endorse, except that he and assassinated JFK had a little more to say about the matter. And much of what the president had to say in his inauguration speech about America in the 1960s is true about Ireland today.

"We are people to whom much is given.

We are able, healthy, successful people, blessed with privilege, opportunity and intelligence. For ourselves and for our children the future looks like a promise.

Against this background of optimism our age, if it is to deliver on its promise, will need people deeply committed to the truth, to what works, to what is real.

"This age demands of us the courage, the dignity, and the integrity to generate behaviour beyond what, according to the standards of opinion makers of the day, is 'wise and reasonable'.

"Our age, if it is to deliver on its promise, needs people capable of real heroism . . . not the kind of heroism which ends up in glory, but the kind which ends up bringing out and making available the truth, what works, what is honest and real."

There has been little that is honest and truthful and real about the Taoiseach's performance in recent times. His past behaviour in relation to his finances has, by his own admission, been unusual and his tribunal appearances provided more questions than answers in relation to the sums he received from businessmen in loans or gifts.

But we shouldn't forget that much progress has been made on many fronts in the 10 years since the Taoiseach took office. Ireland's economic dream has become a reality, peace in the North happened in our time and despite the many problems that prevail Ireland is a much better place. Back then Bertie Ahern earned �133,000 a year; these days, at least, we know exactly what's going into his bank.