Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)

The Bill is a further development of legislation that was introduced by Fianna Fáil in the 1940s at a time when there were similar pressures from employers to undermine wages and conditions. It is significant that such legislation, which reflected Fianna Fáil's then close relationship with the trade union movement and its support among workers, reversed what had been a period of sustained decline in wages from the 1920s onwards, when employers of that time had a close, cosy relationship with Cumann na nGaedhael.

At that time also, the economic debate was dominated by people sympathetic to employers who bemoaned the allegedly high rates of pay that were preventing the development of business here. However, despite the fact the tax on profits was cut in the 1920s, that there was little or no public expenditure to improve social provision and that wages and even pensions had been cut through official measures, and despite all that was done to penalise workers, the economy stagnated up to the 1930s . Then, as now, those who had money in the country were happy for the most part to engage in speculative investment or to invest their money abroad. It was only when the first Fianna Fáil Governments after 1932 introduced progressive legislation to encourage both industrial development and to improve workers' living standards and wages that any kind of development took place. Fianna Fáil might perhaps reflect on its history and on the contents of this Bill in the context of how it corresponds with its historical past before rushing to introduce the proposed amendments to reduce the minimum wage.

A similar process of economic growth and improved wages and trade union involvement in what has become known as "social partnership" was also evident in the 1960s and during our most recent period of growth. The clear lesson is that economic growth does not come from driving down wages and undermining hard work and improved conditions of employment. The contrary is the case. Yet, this is what is being claimed by many employers, economists, economic commentators and political representatives who take their cue from the employers' organisations. It is important mechanisms to allow workers some type of defence against efforts to undermine wages and conditions remain in place. How effective this and the measures contained in this Bill will be is by no means certain given the willingness of some employers to ignore existing procedures agreed between employers and trade unions and enshrined in legislation.

The context of this Bill has changed since it was first indicated that the Minister intended to amend it to allow employers to pay less than the minimum wage and the minimum agreed rates in other sectors under employment regulation orders and registered employment agreements on the basis that companies can claim an inability to pay. An estimated 300,000 workers will potentially have their wages cut if this happens. There are already people who are surviving on well below the average industrial wage, many of whom could be described as the working poor. These are people who despite working hard find it difficult to meet their mortgage commitments, rents and bill payments. What has been forgotten in all of this debate is that people earning the minimum wage, low income families and those in receipt of social welfare payments are part of a sector of our communities and society who spend every penny they earn in their local economies unlike those in other sectors, including the rich, powerful and elite, who by and large invest their moneys abroad. The Government, supported by some of the Opposition, is prepared to go down the road of undermining and reducing the minimum wage.

The State already recognises the plight of people in this sector by way of the family income supplement scheme, which has been accurately described as a mechanism through which the State subsidises low wage employers. The Government is aware that it is virtually impossible for any person with children to live other than hand to mouth on €346 per week given the high cost of necessities and accommodation, many of which have been rented or purchased from the brothers, sisters, sons and daughters of the same people who believe that earning €8.65 per hour for serving meals or drinks that cost more than that represents a fair return.

Now that the Government, at the behest of ISME and IBEC and their friends, has put manners on the big bad public servants, including the ushers, bar staff, secretarial assistants and restaurant workers in the Oireachtas, who unbeknown to them were responsible for the recession, it is going after the minimum wage. These are people employed here and elsewhere in the public service who if their weekly wage was calculated on an hourly basis have already slipped below that threshold. We recently witnessed an attack on the public sector unions and workers, 49% of whom earn below the average industrial wage. Unashamedly, this Government attacked their incomes resulting again in money being taken out of the local economies where these people live. This is happening right across this island, in particular in towns like Tralee in which the biggest employer is the public sector. Cutting public sector pay has taken millions out of the local economy. People in the public sector are at least unionised and have the means to resist the attacks upon them. I welcome that unions are becoming more unified. Many in the low wage sectors, including security, hairdressing, hotels, pubs and so on are not unionised and are therefore more vulnerable to having their wages and conditions undermined. In many cases people in these categories are not unionised, are isolated as individuals and will be preyed upon and abused by unscrupulous people who will take advantage of the reduction of the minimum wage for their own selfish gain.

If this legislation, designed originally to protect workers in such situations, is amended in the manner proposed people will have no legal protections against their wages being driven below the minimum rates and legal protections will count for nothing. For this reason, it is vital that any attempt to amend this Bill to cut the minimum wage rates for the lowest paid workers in this State is opposed and defeated.

When preparing my contribution for today I came across a Press statement from last year in regard to a report on minimum wage levels throughout Europe drawn up by the EUROSTAT wherein this House is referred to several times. It states that the minimum wage in Ireland is the second highest in Europe at €1,462 per month as compared with Luxembourg at €1,600, a fact loudly propagated by Government at the time. Many Cabinet Ministers highlighted the fact that Ireland was second highest in this regard. However, according to the new EUROSTAT report, when adjustments are made for purchasing power in different countries Ireland falls to sixth position on the league table, which is a big drop.

I want to share with the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and Members present a letter I received from a constituent, a married women whose husband, a C2 sub-contractor, has been unemployed for the past 12 months and who experienced great difficulty obtaining his social welfare entitlements. Every obstacle was put in his way. There is not a Member of this House who does not know someone or has not received representations from, I assume, a large number of people in respect of previously self employed people who are unable to obtain their social welfare entitlements. As I stated, the woman concerned is married and has two children, one of whom is attending secondary school. Her husband has been out of work for some considerable time. She works 40 hours a week and earns €9 per hour and as such does not qualify for any State assistance. Her take home pay is €360 per week. Following the recent budget she now pays an income levy of 2%. She has a moderate but not insignificant mortgage which when paid leaves her with €210 per week. It costs her €110 per week to meet payments on her car loan, ESB, phone and heating bills, leaving her with €100 per week to pay for groceries, school books, fees and any medical bills that may arise. This woman does not qualify for a medical card or family income supplement. She is living in the real world. This story can be replicated in respect of hundreds of thousands of people right across the country.

I listened earlier to the contribution of a Member of this House in which he referred to the construction sector and stated that the income earned in that sector was not of the real world. He referred to the fact that employment would be created by reducing union wage rates in the construction sector. How in the name of God could any Member of this House make such an ignorant statement? The biggest hit in the current high unemployment rate comes from the construction sector. I live in the small village of Ardfert, five miles from Tralee. We had a very good Gaelic football team that won two All Irelands, at junior and intermediate level, three and four years ago respectively. We were able to win those trophies because most of the team was employed in the construction sector. They were young men who were encouraged to have trades because of the boom - the so-called balloon that was never going to burst. The club was very successful and every single penny those people earned was spent in the local economy. The boom turned to bust, however, because it was based on an unsustainable construction sector that was never going to last. All those young men, who are now in their mid-twenties, are out of work and have nowhere to go. Nonetheless, a Government Deputy said that high union rates were responsible for unemployment. I could not believe it. There is no work in the construction sector in County Kerry; it is gone. That Deputy's comment was an attempt to fool people that if they took a wage cut there would be work for them. In fact, the construction sector is down and will not be back for a long time. The statistics from Government Ministers indicate there are 40,000 empty units, yet a Deputy could make such a statement here about employment.

We have seen a continual attack on public sector workers, which is so reminiscent of the 1913 lock out. History has an awful habit of repeating itself. In 1913, workers in Dublin were locked out, and in the 1920s and 1930s workers were also penalised. In the 1950s there was mass emigration when people had to leave the country. The big business fat-cats stayed and prospered while the working class were forced to leave. On each occasion we had a controlling press in this State - it was William Martin Murphy in 1913 and it is Sir Anthony O'Reilly in 2010 - that set an agenda attacking both public and private sector workers. The attack on the public sector workers has been made and now the Government intends to attack the weakest people in the private sector, most of whom are not unionised and are on the minimum wage.

We are led to believe that the recession or depression is not the fault of the economic system, big business, developers, multinationals or the banks, which are being bailed out by workers' taxes. We are also told that it has nothing to do with the fact that the political system has been compromised by big business and those who control the economic system. According to the Government side of the House, it is the workers' fault. Let the message go out loud and clear, however, that workers are totally exonerated from the terrible blunders, contrived or otherwise, by the political system in this State, which gave rise to the terrible depression we are living under.

The working class have been continually exploited by a class of people who believe it is their divine right to do so for their own selfish and greedy benefit. The political system propagates, supports and institutionalises the income inequality that exists to this day. It is time for public and private sector unions to come together and stand against what is happening. They should stand united against the wrongs that are being perpetrated against the most vulnerable people in society. They should stand for the entitlements, human rights and justice for working class people across this island. It is time to stand up to the political establishment and a political system in which inequality is ingrained. It is a system that divides workers and utilises mechanisms, including the press, for its own benefit. It is time to stand up to the Galway tent and the multinationals that rape our resources and take them from this island. Those resources are given away by Members of this House who have been entrusted to responsible positions by the people of this State. Until such time as workers unite and the trade union movement comes together, it will be an easy task for the political establishment to divide and conquer. I appeal for the trade union movement across this island to stand against what is being done to the most vulnerable people in our community. They should stand up to those who seek to divide and continue to exploit workers for their own greed and selfish benefit.

The section of the Bill, which is primarily designed to reduced the minimum wage, is a reflection of what the political establishment in this State stands for.

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