Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

A TASC report was issued today, which in a sense is referring to developments in the economy like digitalisation. This is increasingly producing people who are earning significant amounts of money, as well as significant numbers of workers who are on low pay. Some of them are on very low pay and they have few guarantees in their work or work status.

Does the Taoiseach believe we should move from having a minimum wage to having a living wage as part of the economic policy of this country?

Would Fine Gael support a move from a living wage, which has now become fairly well-established? In the context text of how rents and costs have moved for people on low incomes, it is patently not sufficient to allow people to afford the astronomical rents that are now a feature of life not just in Dublin but increasingly throughout Ireland. Even where two people in a couple are working, it is extremely limiting in terms of being able to aspire to purchasing a house. This is a major change in society.

The Taoiseach has often spoken glowingly about digitalisation and its future but has he considered at any point what is going to happen to the people in lower-income employments who have very little way of improving their wages and salaries unless the Government moves? The Government has given 20 cent increases in the minimum wage in recent years, which, in the context of things like rent, goes nowhere towards meeting the needs of workers. Today's TASC report shows that this is now making Ireland, notwithstanding a very good social welfare system that compensates for much, much less equal than it ought to be.

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