Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to speak to the motion and compliment its authors. I had better declare that I am an employer and can speak from that perspective also. As I said, I am happy to speak to the motion and salute Sinn Féin for bringing it forward.

Some of the statistics mentioned in the motion are truly disturbing. There is no other way to describe them and I compliment Sinn Féin on its research. According to Social Justice Ireland, for example, 110,000 workers across the State are at risk of poverty. That is a shocking number. When the Taoiseach made his speech on the budget last week in the House, he quoted scripture from the Bible about how he looked after everybody. The budget was a non-event. As Deputy Broughan and others said, there was very little in it for anyone. I normally say it is like snow on a ditch - with the first rays of sunshine, it melts away - but in the case of the budget, the snow did not even land for anybody. It was so meagre. Old age pensioners received nothing, while many other groups got so little.

While we need to make every effort to improve the working and pay conditions of workers, we must not take measures that will indirectly make things worse. That is very important. I do not have a copy of the Minister's speech, but I heard some of what he said while in my office and agree that we must be very careful not to undermine workers and make things more precarious for them. We know from an ESRI study last year that the increase in the national minimum wage had a negative and statistically significant effect on the hours worked by workers on the national minimum wage. Some very big employers are able to manipulate the hours of staff and operate zero hour contracts. It is very hard to draft legislation to deal with people who want to be devious and abuse workers. According to the ESRI, it was primarily driven by the large hours effect for workers on the national minimum wage on temporary contracts who experienced a weekly reduction of approximately 3.5 hours. Where does one go with this? Wworkers were worse off after reciving the increase which was well intentioned.

I am sure the motion is also well intentioned, but we must be very clever in the phrasing used within legislation. We have conflicting data from Eurfound which has shown that implementing a living wage could play a significant role in offsetting the rise of the level of in-work poverty across the European Union. The data have to be examined. I am tired of saying it must pay a person to go to work. It was great for the Taoiseach to say he was interested in people who got up early in the morning, but there is no point in being up early in the morning and out late at night if one is on a pittance and one's work is not respected. Employers must have respect for their employees. It is a two-way street. Employees will respect their employers if they are respected, but the way some multinationals and conglomerates treat their workers is appalling. We heard so much noise recently about farmers who had been forced onto picket lines to try to get a reasonable and respectful price for their produce. There were threats issued about the loss of jobs and workers were let go in their hundreds. The factories are lamenting the fact that they cannot get some of those workers back. I am talking about AIBP in Cahir. They cannot get the workers back because they were paying them disgraceful money for doing very difficult work. Some of the workers found jobs elsewhere and I hope their new employers will hold on to them. I made the point at the time and say again that many small employers will hold onto their employees in good times and bad because they value and respect them. There is mutual respect and, if possible, they will hold onto their employees through short-term difficulties, but that did not happen with the moguls in the meat industry. They were using and abusing, despite the grants they were receiving. When the so-called deal was reached which involved a pitiful increase of eight cent per kilo, Bord Bia was going to pay it. It was coming from the taxpayer, with nothing at all coming from the people in question. It is time we tackled the elephant in the room - the big conglomerates that are taking over the country. They have no respect for workers, legislators or anyone else. All they are interested in is greed, profit, what company they can take over next and how many billions they have in their bank accounts.

As I said, the Eurofound report made it clear that the living wage rate, for a single adult with no dependants, was €11.90 per hour in 2018. That is 25% higher than the statutory minimum wage of €9.55 per hour. The report also suggests that, due to regional differentials in the cost of living, the living wage rate for a single adult with no dependants in Dublin is €14.45 per hour, while for a single adult with one child, it climbs to €17.15. These figures are 37% and 80% higher than the equivalent rates for those living in rural Ireland. There is a double whammy because the cost of living in Dublin is much higher. While public services, including public transport, are available, the cost of living, particularly the cost of housing, is totally abnormal. The Government keeps pumping up Dublin. I include the Minister of State, Deputy Breen, in that. I do not know why the Government cannot encourage IDA Ireland to get companies to invest outside Dublin. It will state it is difficult to get companies to invest in rural Ireland, that they do not want to locate in Limerick, Cork or Galway. They all want to locate in Dublin. It is a time bomb waiting to explode. There are no houses available. The Minister of State can shake his head all he likes-----

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