Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The reason I am raising the issue of DEIS schools and a living or minimum wage in this and in other questions is this that the young people to whom the Minister has referred, who are at the start of their career working in the arts, find it difficult to get adequate remuneration. The Minister and the Government will be aware that rents are now sky high. If people involved in the arts are to live independent lives it is critical that all the funding organisations that deal with the arts support a move to at least a minimum wage, and preferably a living wage. When I was Tánaiste, I secured a deal with Fine Gael to advance a minimum wage in this country and set up a Low Pay Commission to look at issues affecting people on very low pay and in precarious work. The arts are particularly affected by this. Is the Minister is developing any kind of policy to deal with the real problem of very low and precarious pay and work in the arts sector, particularly among young people?

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