Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, must be the only person in Irish society who does not believe there is a problem recruiting and retaining nurses for our hospitals. I will leave him on that.

Tomorrow in Macroom, County Cork, young archaeologists who have been working on the Macroom N22 bypass will place pickets over a dispute on union recognition and low pay. Their direct employer is the Irish Archaeological Consultancy, IAC, but it is working to a State contract. These young people have degrees, master's degrees and ten years' experience and yet they are on €12.50 per hour. Compare this to the more than €17 per hour earned by a general operative in the construction industry. The two-tier payscales for teachers and nurses is the direct responsibility of the Government but the low pay and effective two-tier pay rates for young workers such as these archaeologists are indirectly the responsibility of the Government, which continues to give State contracts to employers such as theirs. This is also exploitation, direct and indirect, and both should end.

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