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

Thank you.

Our amendment proposes that €12.30 would be the national minimum wage and that would be merely a step on the road to a rate of €15 per hour, which is what a real living wage would be in this country. That is what is needed to live, not simply to exist.

I stood on picket lines today with English language teachers at the Delfin English School in Parnell Square. They are fighting for the right to union recognition, decent pay, proper pensions, sick pay and holidays. They work for a company in an industry that can well afford decent rates of pay. The company has net assets of €1.2 million. The English language teaching industry in this State is an €800 million industry and is only set to grow on the basis of Brexit. That is a small example of how decent wages for workers are well affordable by employers who are raking in superprofits in this country.

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