Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The point I am making is not so much a point of comparison between the public and private sectors, although the Minister may note the advance and the toxic reality of zero hours contracts, casualisation of work and a driving down of terms and conditions in the private sector which, I suggest to the Minister, might account for the situation he described in terms of lower paid public sector workers. I have just told the Minister that some 4,000 of such workers rely on family income supplement. This fact is an admission by the system that these workers do not earn enough to maintain a basic lifestyle - not luxury, nothing fancy, just the basics. I want to know where low paid workers feature in the mandate the Minister has given to his officials in these talks. It seems to me that the Minister has stepped back from what he said a number of weeks ago about prioritising lower paid people. That is how this sounds to me. I would like the Minister to get up from his seat and tell me that I am wrong and I respectfully ask the Minister not to tell me about everyone because I want him to focus on the low paid in the public and civil service.

See this speech in context