Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion, which I support. I commend Sinn Féin on tabling it. It is appropriate that it has been tabled the week after a budget that will drive more and more families into poverty. Even the ESRI indicated that the budget hit the least well-off hardest.

There is no doubt that Ireland is a low-wage economy with a significant rich-poor divide. The country is awash with money. The financial assets of the wealthiest 10% are €50 billion in excess of those in 2006-07. The country has the fifth-largest number of super-wealthy individuals per capitain the world, ahead of countries such as the USA , the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan, and only behind significant tax havens such as Hong Kong and Switzerland. There are 2,055 of these super-rich individuals in the country, or 421 for every 1 million people. We know from well-worked reports that the wealthiest 10% of individuals own 58.4% of all wealth in the country, the wealthiest 5% own 46.4% and the wealthiest 1% own 27.3%. The Government, which could not increase the minimum wage in the budget, was able to give special tax concessions to multinational executives at a cost of €28 million. There is no wealth tax in this country. The very wealthy do not pay their fair share and never have.

Approximately 760,000 people, or one in six, live below the poverty line in Ireland, the eighth wealthiest country in the world, as do 230,000, or one in five, children. That is a shameful figure. It is shameful that so many young children live below the poverty line. Some 110,000 working families live below the poverty line, while 137,000 workers earn the national minimum wage. Another shocking statistic is that the bottom 10% of income earners pay the same percentage of their income in tax as do the top 10% of income earners. Again, that is shameful.

I wish to draw particular attention to the difficulties families experience in respect of the so-called housing assistance payment scheme. It is an outrageous scheme. Some 37,000 families on it are in a situation whereby they do not have two halfpennies to rub together at the end of the week. They must pay rent to the local authority and a top-up to the landlord. Depending on where one lives, one must pay the landlord between €50 and €150 extra weekly.

In such circumstances, the decision last week by the Government not to increase the minimum wage or provide for a living wage is simply shocking and unacceptable. We have the money. As the economist, David McWilliams wrote in The Irish Timestwo weeks ago, now is the time for a wealth tax. A reasonable wealth tax of between 0.5% and 5% could bring in income of between €2 billion and €20 billion per annum. The money is there and it should be used to introduce the living wage. The Minister stated that we should not confuse the minimum wage and the living wage but as far as I am concerned, the living wage should be the minimum wage and it should be introduced immediately.

It is a shame that the Government presides over a situation whereby thousands of public sector employees, including members of the Defence Forces, are paid less than the living wage. I also highlight the thousands of early childhood care professionals, each of whom earns less than the living wage and most of whom earn little more than the minimum wage. Some 94% of childcare workers experience difficulty making ends meet and only 9% can cope with unexpected bills. An illness, bereavement, communion or confirmation may send a family on such low rates of pay into meltdown and, often, into the hands of moneylenders. I support the motion and believe the €12.30 per hour living wage should be immediately introduced as the minimum wage and increased quickly to approximately €15 per hour.

See this speech in context