Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This Bill formally establishes the Low Pay Commission in the legal sense. The commission is tasked with making annual recommendations to the Government which it considers appropriate on the level of the minimum wage and so-called "related matters". The commission has been up and running for the past number of months.

I note from the press release when the commission was established that, according to its terms of reference, it was to look at the changes in earnings since the minimum wage was last increased in 2011. This is interesting because I thought it had been restored. The last increase in the national minimum wage was in 2007. It had been cut as part of an austerity measure, but the Minister made much of the fact that he restored it. The Low Pay Commission should be looking a lot further back than 2011.

Another issue I note with interest is currency exchange rates. This is an interesting one for them to consider as well, because I assumed we lived in the euro area and workers would be paid in Ireland, but maybe there are many workers out there being paid in sterling or other currencies, which has to be taken into account.

The Bill provides that the commission will consist of nine members and that the Minister, or whoever the next Minister is, will appoint them. I am concerned that the recruitment process is not clear or transparent. As I stated, the Minister is involved in appointing each member. A commission appointed by a different Minister could have a different slant. The make-up of the commission includes two academic members, but many academics could have a particular political stance on how the economy should work and could bring that to bear in deciding how the commission works and what its recommendations are.

It is clear after years of austerity that work has increasingly become precarious and riddled with insecurity for those involved, and there are new forms of work emerging, including zero-hour and low-hour contracts. Income inequality is soaring. Ireland is witnessing a widening income gap, with over a third of all income concentrated in the hands of the top 10% of earners, according to TASC. Ireland is now the most unequal country in the EU when it comes to how the economy distributes income, before taxes and social welfare payments are included.

This precariat is a characteristic of 21st century capitalism and is based on flexible, periodic and insecure unemployment, transiency, a lack of control over time, overqualification and uncertainty. This best describes the situation facing many workers, including seasonal ones in my constituency in Donegal. The experience of greater insecurity in work has increased alongside a reduction in social security. Perhaps it should be called social insecurity, as it does nothing to provide a safety net as matters stand.

Unemployment remains a major issue for rural Ireland. Although employment levels have increased, the quality of such employment has decreased since austerity started. These effects will be felt for many years to come. Some of the statistics are startling and should be examined. There are 272,000 fewer full-time jobs in Ireland today compared with 2007, a decrease of 15%, the number of people in part-time jobs is 55,700 higher, an increase of 14%, and more than one quarter of part-time workers, 115,000 plus, are underemployed. Between 2010 and the end of 2014, the number of long-term unemployed persons fell by 48,700. In the same period, though, the net loss to emigration was 123,000 people. Some 58% of the unemployed are long-term unemployed.

Now more than ever, a low pay commission is necessary. I welcome its introduction, even this late in the day. That the Central Statistics Office, CSO, quarterly earnings, hours and employment costs survey showed that 4.7% of employees, or just over 73,000 workers, were paid at or below the national minimum wage of €8.65 per hour in the second quarter of 2014 should be a worrying statistic. I am surprised that the percentage is that low, as I believe that more are paid less than the minimum wage.

To date, the mechanism for reviewing the national minimum wage rate involved the Labour Court, which made recommendations to the Minister after taking into account submissions from interested parties. The last Labour Court recommendation was made in November 2006 and recommended an increase to €8.30 and then €8.65 from 1 July 2007. The wage was decreased in 2011 but quickly restored by the current Government. It is in respect of the most recent increase that the minimum wage commission must work.

We should be discussing a living wage commission rather than a low pay commission. We should be working towards the achievement of a living wage instead of tinkering with the minimum wage, which becomes a ceiling for low pay and the many workers earning less than it.

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