Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 4, between lines 17 and 18, to insert the following:“10BA.The Commission in the performance of the functions assigned to it by section 10C shall forward recommendations to the Minister regarding low pay that—

(a) reduces the incidence of low pay,

(b) considers access to public services,

(c) takes into account the standard of living, general wage levels and access to welfare supports to include social protection supports, universal healthcare provisions, State provided childcare and social housing,

(d) supports the phased introduction of a living wage.”.

The previous section 10B instructs the commission's works and limits it to a recommendation to the Minister on the national minimum wage. Sinn Féin has argued that the regular schedule of work undertaken by the commission should not be limited to its annual recommendation on the hourly rate of the national minimum wage. We want the Low Pay Commission to live up to its name, so this amendment seeks to extend its regular schedule of work to consider and make a recommendation on the living wage annually. This work is currently undertaken independently by the living wage technical group, a group of progressive organisations, and the Low Pay Commission now needs to undertake a similar piece of work on behalf of the State in its effort to tackle low pay and deliver sustainable, fair employment for the longer term.

The prevalence of low pay is deeply worrying. If high levels of low pay persist, tax revenue will be constrained and the ability of the State to invest in capital, infrastructure and public services will remain limited. In effect, in-work social protection supports, while vital for families to ensure they can put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads, also act as a subsidy for businesses. We cannot ignore this reality. We want to keep people in work and the State must step in to support citizens, but surely it is equally incumbent on the State to provide a mechanism to address the wholesale use of low-paid, insecure contracts by companies, sometimes extremely profitable companies in certain sectors of the economy.