Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

A total of 27% of households in which one person is working are suffering deprivation. Moreover, 10% of those in which two people are working are suffering deprivation. Consequently, in addition to the hundreds of thousands who have no work and are suffering poverty and deprivation, there is the significant phenomenon of the working poor, that is, those who are working long and hard but still remain in poverty. On that level, there is a necessity to shift from wage cutting to wage increases to alleviate such deprivation. However, it is also extremely clear that taking money out of the pockets of working people, as has been done in the past five years, has absolutely destroyed domestic demand on the high street for small shops and businesses. Ghost towns are developing nationwide, which is hitting employment because people have no money in their pockets to spend. While the Minister might have a point about considering this issue on a sector by sector basis, does the Government intend to shift policy and begin to examine ways to push up the wages and disposable incomes of low and middle income workers?

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