Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to see the Low Pay Commission engage, which I know it does, with the Departments of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Finance to see how the public service can do more to mitigate the costs felt by people in the low paid area, that is, with regard to accommodation, healthcare and training.

We are also facing a tsunami of low-paid jobs in this country being overtaken by technology. Nobody is looking at this problem. There are forklift drivers working in logistics companies who will, over time, be taken out by robotised pallet systems. That is just one area of many. Nobody is talking about this but, as wages rise further and technology becomes cheaper, more and more of this will happen. We need to discuss this problem and how we will upskill people and try to point them to employment that will pay them properly in the future.