Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Nobody intended to make the mistake.

Ninety-eight years ago today, the Democratic Programme for the First Dáil was published. Written by the Labour Party leader, Tom Johnson, it set out an ambitious set of proposals to make Ireland an equal and prosperous nation. That programme declared the right of every citizen to an adequate share of the produce of the nation's labour. Ninety-eight years later, the Tánaiste will agree we are some distance from realising this important and lofty ambition.

During the last election, the Labour Party proposed the Low Pay Commission be mandated to deliver a living wage to all working people during the lifetime of this Dáil. We wanted to build on the decent progress made by the previous Government, which saw the hourly minimum wage rate rise by €1.50 after Fianna Fáil had savagely cut it. The programme for Government which Fine Gael, together with the Independents, has published, promised to increase the minimum wage to a level of €10.50. It is a crying shame the Government has done nothing to deliver on this outcome to date. The 10 cent per hour increase awarded from 1 January will come as little comfort to those working on the minimum wage. For the 100,000 people or more who get paid just €9.25 per hour that increase, bluntly, was an insult. If the Government continues at this rate of increase, if this is to be the rate that will take place, it will be 2030 before the modest €10.50 promised in the Government proposals is reached. That is another 13 years to achieve the target set. Frankly, that is not good enough, and I suspect that privately the Tánaiste agrees with me on this issue.

What action, if any, does the Government intend to take to deliver at the very least on its published commitment to bring the minimum hourly rate of pay in the State to €10.50? More importantly, will Fine Gael now review the agreement it has with the Independents on this, and the commitment set out in the programme for Government, and instead set a clear pathway for the lowest paid in the State to achieve what, by universal agreement now, is required to maintain a living wage in the State?

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