David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am posing the questions. My point is that we are getting different figures from Mr. Taft and from Ms Callan. I looked at the EUROSTAT figures and they show that we drop significantly below the European average when one factors in the price of goods and services.

The witnesses are obviously against an increase in the minimum wage and I would imagine that they are also against wage increases in the economy generally. However, they also made the point that we have a difficulty with regard to the provision of public services. That is one of the problems which leads to both income and economic inequalities. We heard from IBEC at a previous meeting and it agreed that child care provision, health care and housing are very important instruments when dealing with economic equality. All of the employer organisations are arguing against increasing the minimum wage and are calling for wage restraint. They are also against any increases in taxation, whether that be corporate or income taxes. In that context, where is the money going to come from to provide the services we need if we want to achieve a fair economy? Is it fair or right that we have 21% of workers on low pay? Is it right that we have 350,000 workers suffering from deprivation? Is it right that some employers who can pay more refuse to do so because they do not want to? Is that right?

The witnesses expressed the concern that an increase in the minimum wage could cost jobs. What evidence is that argument based on? Can the witnesses provide evidence that increasing the minimum wage by €1 would actually cost jobs across the economy? Where does that assertion come from? We are trying to lift our domestic economy by increasing domestic demand. The very firms and businesses that the witnesses represent would be the ones to benefit the most from any wage increase because people would have more money in their pockets to spend.