Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will cite an instance of that because it is always worth thinking about real people. Private security workers have become very active around their low pay. The committee will be aware of an employer - I probably cannot mention him but his name is well out there - who is trying to block a very minimal pay increase for private security workers. The current minimum level of their pay is below €12 per hour. The increase they would get under the employment regulation order, ERO, would bring it very slightly over €12, but only marginally. When we consider what private security workers did for this country during Covid, and what they do every day, we see that they are an example of the hidden heroes who did not get much air play during Covid. They provide security on public transport, at hospitals, for lots of public buildings, and in a whole range of other areas including supermarkets. They are on absolutely pitifully low pay. We could help them by providing for a dramatic increase. We could overcome the attempt by their employers to block the miserable little pay increase they were supposed to get under an ERO - and we could save the private security workers all of this campaigning - by having a fairly dramatic increase of the minimum wage to a living wage. Our view is that it should go to at least €15 per hour. The Minister will probably think that is going way too far. I would say it is the minimum people need these days to be able to survive and sustain themselves, and even at that they will be struggling. At the very least, it should be increased to the official level of the living wage. All of the words about the rewards we were going to give to workers when we realised how important they were during Covid are meaningless if we do not increase the minimum wage to some kind of actual living wage. This needs to be far in excess of what we have done with the minimum wage increase, which is fairly derisory, if we are honest, against the background of the current cost-of-living and rental crises. I put this to the Minister. I give a particular shout-out to the security workers in Unite who are campaigning around these issues and insisting that they should be paid decent pay for the work they do.