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

It was interesting that the Minister of State suggested David Cameron was playing a bit of a game, by committing to a living wage but taking it away with the other hand through tax credits. He stated wages are rising here and that we are trying to deal with low pay. Is the Government not doing exactly the same thing? Is that not the whole point of these amendments? I am very glad to say a motion was passed at the ICTU conference, against some resistance it has to be said by the unions generally associated with the Labour Party, but nonetheless the majority of unions, headed up by the right to water trade unions, stating that ICTU should oppose water charges because they are another regressive tax which reduce the real income of workers and therefore it is an issue for the trade union movement. They are absolutely right. I am sure it was for political reasons that certain trade unions with a strong association with the Labour Party opposed the motion. It speaks exactly to what the Minister of State just rightly accused David Cameron of doing.

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