David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I was taken when ICTU said that 3% of all businesses have more than half of their workers on the minimum wage. I thought that was an interesting point that ICTU made. ICTU also said, I think that 5,000 workers, or 7%, were earning the minimum wage and that less than half of 54% are in hospitality and retail. There are approximately 90,000 working in that area. Does ICTU have any detail with respect to how many of those workers are under the ages of 24 or 25? I note that the ESRI had a paper on decent working quite a while ago which said that 33% of the 18- to 24-year-olds were in temporary employment. Many of those would possibly be students who would be working in those sectors in part-time jobs etc. They would be working in the evenings, and they are needed. I am also curious with respect to the other side of 54%. Where are they and what areas are they in?

My other question relates to how when we walk around any towns now we will see signs in windows here and there for vacancies and jobs that are available and so forth. In ICTU’s view and in its experience, have the pressures in the area of labour pushed up wages? In other words, if I am an employer and I want to employ somebody and if my competitor down the road is paying more, there is a risk that the worker will move to the competitor, rather than staying with me. Has that had an impact on wages overall and on pushing them up? Those are just a couple of questions to start with.