Dr. Laura Bambrick:

Ireland is really unusual in the EU. We are one of four European members of the OECD that pays a sub-minimum rate to young adult workers, that is, those aged over 18. We are well behind the curve. Many countries would have had them previously but they have moved away. We are delaying that.

We were really disappointed because we were very strong in our evidence to the Low Pay Commission when it was looking at how the progress to a living wage would be structured. A large chunk of our evidence was made looking at this area of sub-minimum rates for young adults. We were very disappointed to see that the commission decided the new living wage should exclude those workers.

What is particularly worrying is that at the same time, we are quite rightly seeing Government encouraging apprenticeships. That is a gold standard of trade union policy. We have a concern, however, that we will see more quasi-apprenticeships and traineeships as a workaround to a living wage because, of course, apprentices are the other large group that are not covered by either minimum wage or a living wage. It is, therefore, an issue on which we are behind the curve. There is no reason for this. More worrying, it is EU law that if we are going to exempt certain types of employment from minimum wage legislation, it must be evidence-based. We cannot find the evidence base for not covering young adults for a minimum wage and in turn, a living wage.