Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Definitely within the construction sector and more widely, the Senator is right that pay is not the immediate concern. We are setting minimum rights at a time that is very different perhaps from before. It is a time when the economy is going very well. Activity in the construction sector is as high as can be but it can and needs to be a lot more. When we are putting these thresholds or basic minimums in place, this is to bear in mind that things will not always be going so well for the economy and that there are natural ebbs and flows. Over the past five years alone we have dealt with concerns from the impact of Brexit, a global pandemic, the likes of which we have not seen for a century, a vicious and brutal war in Ukraine and the knock-on effects in terms of a very acute rise in cost-of-living issues. There are also energy increases which are impacting every western democracy to be honest; we are not an individual outlier on this. Where we have a unique strength as an economy and a society is when we look at the indicators. Compared to all other EU member states, we will have the fastest growing economy next year; we will have proportionately the highest budgetary surplus; and we have the highest number of people at work in the history of our State at 2.57 million people, which is colossal. Without giving away mine or the Senator's age, when we left university there were not many options for us. He went on a boat and I went to Belgium. Unfortunately, that is where many of our generation found themselves because they simply left college with nowhere to work. Thankfully, and with respect to the action plan for jobs of the then Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, and later, Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Deputy Bruton, that is not the case for so many people who came after us.

When we look at those supports and at making sure that people getting a job is the first and foremost priority of an enterprise strategy, this ensures that those jobs and employment options are good and worthwhile jobs which more than 70,000 people came to Ireland last year to be part of. This is not just because they are going into jobs in the dynamic sectors - like technology, life sciences, pharma, the construction field building pharmaceutical plants and the homes workers will live in, or on the roads or the public transport mechanisms - but because they are working under good conditions with good basic minimum rates such as what we are laying out this morning. This also builds on the very many areas that have already been pushed through in legislation by the current Taoiseach, and indeed by my predecessor, Deputy English. I do not know how many times I was on the backbenches of the Dáil in the past year speaking to legislation being taken by Deputy English who was a Minister of State in this Department.

It was something I always took great pleasure in because these are good and ambitious measures. We have built on them, particularly when it comes to statutory sick pay and building up what it covers and going from three to five to ten days. I hope that more widely in the budgetary process we will see a greater return for workers as we go into pre-budgetary discussions over the coming weeks. We should make sure that our workforce remains officially, according to the UN, the happiest workforce in the world.