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

I would like to add my support to these amendments. The expression about lies, damned lies and statistics is certainly a relevant idea when we are talking about low pay. We can bandy around statistics, as the Minister of State did earlier when he said that pay levels are increasing. We can debate whether the JobBridge and Gateway schemes are licences for exploitation or, as I suspect the Government would argue when cases of abuse are highlighted, otherwise good programmes that are being abused in a small number of rogue instances. Similarly, there is an urgent need for rigorous monitoring and enforcement levels to end the abuses associated with bogus self-employment. We can debate things at theoretical, legislative and statistical levels, but the devil is always in the detail of the individual real cases. That is how we discover what is really happening and what needs to be addressed, tightened up and changed. If the Low Pay Commission is to become an active force in addressing the scourge of low pay, the abuse of schemes like JobBridge and the question of bogus self-employment, it must be given a real, tangible and concrete watchdog role. I have nothing to add to Deputy Paul Murphy's points. I agree that we need something that is responsive to the changes in the cost of living, etc. As such changes often happen over relatively short periods of time, we need to be able to review these matters on a more frequent basis. I believe these amendments are sensible and practical.

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