Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No, that is not so. If the Minister and the Government were to accept Deputy Michael McGrath's Bill, we could force a reduction in variable interest rates, something the Government has restricted and failed to adopt.

Some 10,000 people have become homeless during the time this Government has been in office. I was dealing with the case of a man who phoned me from Kinnegad. He is working and has a family but because he is working and in receipt of the working family payment, he is above the income threshold for social housing. He is not getting any assistance through the housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme. He is not entitled to avail of a Rebuilding Ireland mortgage because he was in a previous relationship and had a previous home. We have yet to see the roll-out of the affordable housing scheme, despite it having been committed to not in the budget announced 12 months ago, as opposed to last week's. Not one affordable housing scheme has been rolled out anywhere on this island. We were promised a review of the social housing income limits for people who could avail of social housing and go on the social housing lists. I have repeatedly tabled parliamentary questions on this to the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government and have been repeatedly told the review is imminent but we have yet to see it.

On childcare, one reason that is preventing so many people from taking up work is that, on average, 27.4% of an Irish person's income is spent on childcare compared to the OECD average of 12.6%. If we are serious about helping families, what the Government should be doing is clearly outlining when it will introduce the increase to the minimum wage and what it is doing to tackle the exorbitant cost of living in this country.

I want to turn to the area of business competitiveness. We must be cognisant of the fact that when a minimum wage is increased or, as Sinn Féin is advocating in this instance, a living wage of €12.30 is introduced, it is not the State but the many small and medium-sized businesses which will have to pick up those costs. It is very hard to force small and medium businesses to pick up the cost of a living wage at a time when the State itself does not ensure that all its employees are in receipt of a living wage. I am thinking of members of the Defence Forces, many of whom are not in receipt of a living wage.

The most recent AIB Brexit sentiment survey from the third quarter of 2019 stated that more than four of every ten Irish firms believe that Brexit is already negatively impacting on business. There has been a total erosion of confidence, which is having a serious effect on business. If we are to have a hard Brexit, and we do not know what type of Brexit we are going to have, there is the potential for an unemployment rise to 5.8% in 2020, to 6.9% in 2021 and by a further 2.2% in 2022.

What we should do is refer the living wage to the Low Pay Commission. To be fair, the Low Pay Commission has depoliticised the area of the minimum wage and, in my opinion, it is best equipped to decide what is the best living wage. We have to look at how a living wage would impact on small and medium enterprises. Sinn Féin talks about ensuring that people have this living wage but if we put some of our SMEs out of business, instead of increasing people's income, we will decimate their income. There are businesses that have huge challenges. For example, the retail sector is on its knees in terms of the erosion of confidence and the competition from online trade, and, quite simply, it is only paying what it can afford to pay.

If we want to understand the cost of doing business in this country, we need only look at commercial rates or the cost of borrowing, which for SMEs in this country is 65% higher than for European counterparts. In January 2019, the cost of borrowing for SMEs in this country was on average 5.7% whereas EA1 and EA2 countries had a cost of borrowing for SMEs of just 2.5%. Rental prices continue to rise, energy prices are higher than anywhere else in the EU and there is a tsunami of public liability insurance costs for SMEs and many are facing potential ruin because they are not able to pay their public liability insurance. I raised this issue last week with the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation. I cited the example of a constituent who is employing 31 people and, in the last 12 months, his public liability insurance has risen from just below €40,000 to €109,000 per year. He is genuinely considering whether it is worthwhile keeping his door open. That is 31 jobs.

While there are many elements of the motion which we support, we have put forward amendments. We believe the living wage should be referred to Low Pay Commission and that the Minister needs to accelerate her efforts to tackle the high cost of living and the high cost of doing business in this country.

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