Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

People looking in on this debate will have listened to the Minister of State, Deputy Ó Ríordáin's rosy picture of how the economy is functioning at the moment. The reality is that these people will be well aware of the continuing unemployment crisis. They will be aware that people who are unemployed and over 65 are not even counted as unemployed, and that the tens of thousands of people receiving a pittance on job activation schemes are also not counted as unemployed. They will be aware that for every job this Government has created, four people have emigrated. That is a damning statistic for the Deputy's Government.

People are also aware that at the same time there has been a savage hollowing out of the pay and conditions of those in work. Low-paid insecure work is now entrenched in the labour force. A total of 20% workers are in casual and part-time work. Ireland has one of the highest rates of low pay in the OECD, and of underemployment in the EU. It is not Sinn Féin that is delivering this information. These are internationally recognised bodies that are respected for their level of research. Half of all workers in this State will earn less than €25,000 this year and 30% will earn less than €20,000. Every day 135,000 children face material deprivation. These are startling facts and they are a disastrous monument to the Government's two-tier economic policies.

Last night in the debate we heard the Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton speak. Not for one second did he acknowledge that there is even a problem with regard to low pay or job insecurity. "What crisis?" was his mantra. What crisis indeed? The Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny earns €3,500 a week, more than the British and French Prime Ministers and nearly seven times the weekly pay of half the workers in the State. Its clear from the comments by the Minister, Deputy Bruton, that politicians cannot represent if they cannot relate.

The truth is that Ireland's economy is built on two tiers and that this is not by accident. For example, the average senior manager's earnings are 7.7 times those of secretaries, as opposed to Nordic countries where senior managers' compensation is 3.5 times that of secretaries. Fine Gael and Labour Ministers are beneficiaries of that income inequality. Real change is a material threat to them. As a result, the junior party in the Government has been politically neutered yet again. We welcome the fact that there is a low pay commission but it is deficient. It will tackle only the minimum wage and ignores the plight of 8% of workers who are in danger of poverty.

All we seek to do in this motion is offer positive, real solutions to deal with the current crisis. The fact is that work and poverty discriminate on the basis of gender, age and race. We propose that the low pay commission is built to take this into consideration. Poverty is a result not just of wages but also of the terms and conditions of work, access to public services, taxation, and State supports. We propose that the low pay commission take this into consideration.

The Minister of State, Deputy Ó Ríordáin shook his head during the last speech, when my colleague indicated that the low pay commission was narrow in its focus. The fact is that it only has one focus, the minimum wage. If I had a year left in government and had one shot at rectifying this disaster that is happening in the labour force, I would make sure the commission's remit was broad and robust enough to deal with the problems at hand.

Another problem at hand is the zero-hour contracts. They are a disease in our society and are eating away at job security. They cause poverty and they prevent workers from getting another job and from getting mortgages and car loans. Everyday issues for families, such as child care, becomes next to impossible. Indeed, zero-hour contracts create opportunity for exploitation that has not been seen for decades. We saw this in the recent Dunnes Stores dispute. For "zero-hour contract", read "poverty trap". However, rather than tasking the low pay commission to end their use, the Labour Party says it will outsource analysis of zero-hour contracts to a third party and on that basis make the decision. Is this to be "Labour's way" in the midst of an immediate workers' rights crisis? When Labour Party candidates who were standing for election in 2011 were asked what they were going to do about these issues, why did they not stand up and say they would outsource the analysis to somebody else and then make a decision?

Under this Government insecure, low contracts have been allowed to develop and to create competitive advantages for unscrupulous employers. This motion simply seeks to remove that competitive advantage to make sure that exploitation of workers does not increase the profits of employers. Our motion seeks to make banded contracts an option for workers who seek them, so that they can improve their own job security.

The motion proposes a number of positive solutions. It seeks to create a good environment for workers from which decent employers will benefit. It would create good standards of living. It would also end the bullying and manipulation of workers and negate the need for industrial action. I can understand that the Minister of State gets a little bit prickly around these issues. The Labour Party does not like other parties being critical of it. I assure the Minister of State that this is an effort to wake up the Labour Party to the catastrophe that is happening in this country. I urge him to give workers real legislative protection.

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