Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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-----but what I do not understand is why the burden of that should be shifted onto the lowest-paid workers in the State. What I take from her comments is that there is a contradiction in IBEC's position in that Mr. McCoy says one thing in his open letter to the Taoiseach and Ms McElwee says another thing here. IBEC defends the mechanisms for setting the national minimum wage and then says the national minimum wage, as set by those mechanisms, should now be paused. I do not accept that as a credible position but I appreciate that it is IBEC's position. When challenges are faced, they should not be put on the lowest-paid workers. The national minimum wage is there for a reason, and that is to protect those workers who are, by definition, the lowest-paid workers in the economy. We are not going to get any further on this, and I do have other questions and my time is short, so-----