Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Hughes and his team. I will not name them all but they are all very welcome. I wish them the best and Mr. Hughes the best in his new role. He has a fair bit of work ahead of him but he has a good team around him so he is halfway there.

A commitment has been given to transition to the living wage by 2026. This is not as far as I would like it to go but that is where it is. Regarding the stage the transition is at this year and through to 2025, does the Department have a view on time-limited supports to help businesses that need to move to the living wage? We know there is an exemption under section 41 of the National Minimum Wage Act. Mr. Hughes might know more about this than I do, but to my knowledge, that exemption has not been fully utilised. I think some people nearly used it but did not. This is for businesses that can prove they cannot pay the minimum wage, which is different from the transition to the living wage and does not really address the issue of a worker who will miss out when everyone is moving. Does the Department have any view on time-limited supports for business to transition? Clearly, the Department does not want to leave them on that support forever but neither does it want those workers to lose out, and none of us wants to put the business in a situation where it becomes unviable because of the living wage.