For people to stay in work there must be an incentive to do so in the form of adequate pay. Low-paid workers are most at risk of becoming unemployed and falling into poverty. The restoration of the national minimum wage is a pledge made by the Labour Party during our election campaign and one I am pleased to be able to honour. The Social Welfare and Pensions Bill provides for the necessary legislative changes to the National Minimum Wage Act so as to increase the minimum hourly rate by €1. This will increase the minimum wage from €7.65 to €8.65 an hour and constitutes a full reversal of the 2010 cut to the national minimum wage by the previous Government of Fianna Fáil and the Green Party.

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