John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

At 21.8% or 22%, low pay is entrenched in Ireland's economy. It is reasonable to ask for monitoring by the Low Pay Commission. ICTU stated that any legislation had to include provisions that ensured that employees could not be frustrated in their attempts to improve working conditions, but the commission must go further. If low pay is so entrenched in our society as to make us only second to the US, we must have some way of monitoring how people are treated after we pass this legislation. If we do not monitor something, how will we know whether it is working? Some of us have a difference of opinion about whether this should be about a living wage rather than a low or minimum wage.

5 o’clock

The Minister of State has rejected the amendment that would have included a reference to a "living wage". I do not think he should have rejected it. Surely it is reasonable to ask that we find some way of monitoring this over the next few years. Should we leave it once more to the OECD and to other groups to find out how many people are on the minimum wage or on low income rates? What is the point of the commission if it just finishes after it makes its recommendations without being able to monitor what happens to workers in Ireland over the next five or six years? How are we going to know how people are being treated? We have already heard examples today of people not even getting the minimum wage. The Minister of State and I know there are examples of people not getting it. I wanted to speak earlier on amendment No. 10, but I did not get an opportunity to do so. As I said earlier, it is unacceptable that people under the age of 18 are on a 70% rate because it opens the door to exploitation. I think the recommendation in this amendment that some way should be found to monitor this matter is a reasonable one. The commission is the group to do that. We should not be leaving it to organisations in Europe like the human rights committee to talk about the breach of human rights that is the denial to people of the right to earn a minimum or living wage. We have to find some way for this commission to monitor this. I suggest we should instruct it to do so.

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