John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I subscribe to everything that Deputies Richard Boyd Barrett and Paul Murphy had to say in regard to amendment No. 7. What we have been speaking for the past half hour in the context of the amendment is the remit of the Low Pay Commission. This is not all about low pay or the minimum wage, rather it is about a living wage. Many examples have been given. It should be within the remit of the commission to ascertain or determine what a living wage should be.

It is a definition that has been debated by different groups right across Europe. It is the human right of every person to have a wage which affords him or her a quality of life that makes existence liveable.

The difficulty with this Bill in its entirety is that it gives no indication that we are heading in the direction we should be heading, namely, towards the introduction of a liveable wage. The points Deputy Boyd Barrett made are crucial to this debate. Unless we begin to move in the direction of a living wage and focus on people's quality of life, we will continue to see exploitation in such areas as housing, where even people on reasonable wages are being crucified in terms of what they have to pay out. Those on low pay, including people making only the national minimum wage, some of whom are on local authority housing lists, are struggling to meet the cost of lower-rent accommodation.

We need to move beyond talking about low pay and minimum pay and instead focus on ensuring that people earn a liveable rate of pay. I am sure the Minister of State would subscribe to that concept. It is how one lifts people out of poverty while at the same providing stimulation to the economy. If we pay people a liveable wage, they will have the means to spend more in the economy and have a better quality of life. To that end, the remit of the Low Pay Commission should be expanded to allow it to make recommendations as to what a living wage should be. It is not about whether people should or should not be on low pay - I expect the commission will say they should not be - or about setting a minimum wage. The minimum wage is not working. In fact, it is keeping thousands of people on or below the poverty line. In a context in which the cost of living is beginning to increase again, particularly in respect of housing, it is clear that a national minimum wage is not the solution to poverty in the medium or long term. I conclude by referring, as I did earlier, to the observation by the ambassador from Switzerland that paying people a reasonable wage is the way to take them out of poverty and stimulate the economy.

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