Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)

I support this motion and reiterate my party's opposition to any attempt to undermine further the wages and conditions of low-paid workers. I reiterate there has been an attempt to create a type of myth about workers who are covered by the rates set under the employment regulations orders and registered employment agreements. Some employers and media commentators have even suggested that doing away with these could lift the burden from employers and, in itself, this would almost lead to an economic recovery. That is nonsense, as clearly proved by statistics cited in the Duffy report, which shows that the majority of workers who are covered by the rates in question are on low wages. In many cases, the rate set by order was less than the restored national minimum wage. In many of these instances, the only things bringing these workers above that level were overtime rates and, in a few cases, commission. If overtime were to be eliminated or drastically reduced, many workers covered by these orders would slip below the minimum wage. If that were allowed, and the proposal to allow employers who are covered by wage orders to avail of an "inability to pay" clause were accepted, it would have drastic implications for hundreds of thousands of workers and their families. In such circumstances, a substantial proportion of the workforce would be living in dire poverty. Is that what the champions of the free market wish for this country? Do they want people who are in work to be unable to afford to maintain any reasonable standard of life? I suggest that will be the consequence if they have their way and persuade the Government to go well beyond the recommendations of the report by sanctioning a race to the bottom. It would make the national minimum wage almost an irrelevancy.

I would like to refer to the myth that drastically reducing the wages of people covered by these orders will somehow lead to a huge expansion in employment. In the majority of cases, we are talking about people in the service sector, such as hairdressers, hotel workers, security personnel and cleaners. In other words, we are talking about people whose jobs depend on other people's disposable income. It does not take a genius to realise that many of these sectors are doing badly because of the overall state of the economy. Fewer people are working and more people are earning less than they were. This has drastically reduced the amount of money people are spending. It takes even less of a genius to work out that if the wages of people working in the sectors I have mentioned are reduced further, there will be even less money to go around. The less money people spend, the fewer jobs there will be. Any reduction in the wages of hairdressers, hotel staff and security workers will not create jobs or provide an economic stimulus. All it will do is shift more of the shrinking pie from the pockets and purses of workers to the pockets and purses of employers. More than such short-sighted thinking will be needed if this economy is to recover and get back to growth. Real investment in the productive economy will be needed. Rather than retreating from the economy, as many people are advocating, the State will be required to play a central role in it.

I wish to emphasise a central issue that needs to be remembered when we are talking about the economy. Every cent that is paid to the low-income families and people about whom we are speaking is spent in local economies and helps to keep people in work. If the Government intends to reduce their wage levels, or to take away the few hours of overtime they might get at the weekend, the effect of that will be to take money out of the economy, to create more unemployment and to put the economy in a bigger mess. The State needs to defend those whose wages and conditions are under attack. It should not allow hard-won rights to be abolished or ignored in the interests of a short-sighted, mean and reactionary agenda. Those who are pursuing that agenda want our right-wing Government to placate its new masters in the IMF and the EU, penalise the less well-off in our communities and societies and attack the most vulnerable. That is what is happening. I am really shocked that members of this Government who claim to be socialists are involved in making this decision. I have known the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, for a long time. I do not think this type of situation sits easily with her. The Minister of State and her party have the ability to withstand the agenda I have mentioned and to stand up for real, ordinary and decent people. I refer to working-class people on low incomes, who represent the soul of the community and of society. The Labour Party should stand by such people rather than allowing this to happen.

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