Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support the motion. I commend my colleagues on its introduction. If we are serious about dealing with poverty and inequality, we must deal with workers' rights. This means ensuring workers have a proper wage that provides them with a good basic standard of living. That is not too much to ask for. That is why Sinn Féin is calling for the introduction of a living wage of €12.30 an hour. One in five workers living in rented accommodation spends more than half of his or her wages on rent. This is creating another layer of poverty. Workers in rural areas, who have no option other than to drive ten, 20 or 30 miles to work in the nearest large town have to contend with sky-high motor insurance costs. They have no other means of transport and no other way of getting around. That is the situation they are in. There is great pressure on workers.

At a time the top 10% of earners in Ireland are in receipt of one third of all income and the top 1% own 27% of all the wealth in the State, approximately 760,000 people, 230,000 of whom are children, are living in poverty. That is a staggering level of inequality. In my constituency of Laois-Offaly, many workers in the hospitality sector and beef plants take home less than €400 a week. In some cases, they take home less than €300 a week. How can somebody be expected to survive on that, let alone have a decent standard of living? Workers in the beef factories are at the pin of their collar. The owners - Larry maith an fear and others - made profits of €170 million last year. ABP can certainly afford to pay the living wage, and a lot more with it. The same can be said of many other employers. A few years ago, a meat factory in Rathdowney cleared out all of its workers and brought in new workers on the minimum wage. This is an example of the race to the bottom.

While we recognise that circumstances have to change, we appreciate that some smaller businesses will be genuinely unable to afford to increase wages immediately. There must be a clause in legislation to exempt such employers and small businesses from this requirement. We have provided for that in our motion. Many large businesses, including large hotels, food processors and companies in the beef industry, are taking advantage and exploiting Irish and foreign workers. We cannot stand for this any longer. We have a responsibility to legislate for the living wage. We need to close the gap by giving workers a proper week's wages. It is time for ordinary workers to get a proper wage for their work. Lest we forget, one of the final acts of the most recent Fianna Fáil Government was to cut €39 a week from the minimum wage. That did not benefit the Government of the day. It was obvious that a strong IBEC lobby was an influencing factor in this regard. This attitude needs to change. It is unsurprising that Fianna Fáil is not giving its full support to the motion we are proposing tonight. We are pushing ahead with it because we believe it is a basic requirement if ordinary workers are to be protected. I refer to men and women who are working hard in this State. I am sure the Taoiseach was referring to them when he spoke about people who get up early every morning. We are talking about them in this motion.

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