Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Section 5 sets out a very comprehensive and challenging set of factors that the commission must take into account every year in arriving at a recommendation on a rate of the national minimum wage. Amendment No. 2 seeks to add further objectives for the recommendation from the commission on the minimum hourly rate of pay, including reducing the incidence of low pay and supporting what is termed the phased introduction of a living wage. Amendment No. 3 seeks to have the Low Pay Commission, in addition to its annual recommendation on the national minimum hourly rate of pay, make an annual recommendation to the Minister on the living wage. We should avoid conflating and confusing the two issues.

On the issue of a living wage, I have spoken in the past of my support for the development of the concept of a living wage in Ireland, but we must differentiate between the application of a mandatory national minimum wage and a living wage that is born from a broad societal movement. We would be familiar with the context of that in the UK and how successfully the living wage concept has evolved in the UK over the last few years. The fact that it is a grassroots civil society campaign is where it draws its strength from. At the moment there are about 1,500 UK companies, large and small, that are paying the living wage. There are two separate rates: the London rate and a rate outside London. It is a concept that I and the Tánaiste support. I have stated on a number of occasions that I will be holding the first Government-backed forum on the living wage concept in the autumn, because it is crucial that we bring employers, employees and their representatives together with civil society organisations to discuss how this concept could successfully be applied to Ireland. However, I restate that this is a voluntary issue and we must look at it in that context.

Deputy Ellis's party had a forum on the living wage in Liberty Hall recently but there was one major omission - it did not bother to invite a single employer. There are good strong trade union officials around this table, who I do not think have ever garnered a pay increase for the people they seek to represent without engaging with the employer, so it is quite bizarre that one would not invite an employer or employer representatives to a forum when one purports to want to discuss the living wage.

Amendment No. 4 from Deputy Calleary would require the commission each year to research and recommend to the Minister national minimum wage rates of pay for youth and apprentice workers.