Dr. Seán Healy:

With regard to research, we did some checking on what the impact might be on somebody receiving the living wage. The living wage technical group has calculated the figure of €11.70 as the living wage for this year, which amounts to €23,800 per year. A person on that living wage will be just €1.21 per week better off in 2018 than in 2017. By way of comparison, somebody on €72,000 per year, which is twice the average earnings, would be €6.30 better off per week. We can see, therefore, that the benefit is skewed. The reason we are highlighting this and doing some research into it - it is on page 3 of our response - is that Ireland has the third highest rate of low pay among full-time employees in the western world. Only Colombia and the United States have worse rates than we have. A total of 24% of all full-time employees in Ireland are in low paid employments. As points of comparison in the European Union, Denmark has a rate of 8.2%, while the rate in Finland stands at 7.8%. These are the countries with which we compare ourselves.