Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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I thank our witnesses for their contributions. We had a private session beforehand in which we considered the elements of the National Minimum Wage (Equal Pay for Young Workers) Bill 2022. It was mentioned, and I think it bears being repeated in public, that much of the discussion we are having now about this subject directly mirrors that same kind of discussion that was had about equal pay for women, in respect of it being said they were only working for a bit of pin money, there was plenty of money at home and women were doing their jobs only as a bit of an ould hobby, with the chances being the full range of duties would not be being done anyway.

We need to contextualise this situation. We now know that the world did not come to a shuddering halt when that situation changed, although this might be because the gender pay gap still exists to a certain extent. When equal pay acts were brought in in this and other countries and states, their introduction enhanced the workplace. I imagine even the people who were very against this change at the time would agree now that it was a very positive move. I say this because the language being used around this proposed legislation struck me in terms of that comparable context.

Starting with the witnesses from Mandate, the use of sub-minimum rates of pay exists and is legal now because it is allowed for in legislation. The same disparity is mirrored in the social welfare legislation because we know what was done there. Is it the case that the members of the Mandate union receiving less money for their hourly rate are expected to do less work?