Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My contribution relates to the minimum wage section of the Bill, given the Minister is missing a key opportunity to raise income levels for workers. The Government's handling of the minimum wage question in this year's budget was disappointing. The total absence of information and the conflicting accounts from the Minister and the Taoiseach about what the Government was going to do on the minimum wage was very unhelpful to workers. It was regrettable that the Government decided to defer a decision on the minimum wage, citing Brexit as the excuse. This simply is not good enough and that excuse did not fool anyone.

Thousands of workers look to budget day to get a small break and, for many, the only thing they expect is an increase in the minimum wage. To leave that out, and for the Minister for Finance to not even mention it in his budget speech, was insulting to low paid workers. It should never have happened and should not be repeated. If the Government decided not to increase this, it should tell people on budget day, not leak it, avoid it and then have conflicting accounts of the approach. This left people in limbo, not knowing if they were getting a much-needed increase in their wages. It was very unfair and I would ask the Minister to look at how this was handled. The Government's decision not to increase the national minimum wage in budget 2020 was a slap in the face for the 137,000 workers who currently earn the minimum wage. There will be no postponement of rent increases, no stop to significant insurance costs or no delay to the carbon tax, but it seems the Government does not care if people can afford this or not.

The excuse of Brexit does not fool anyone. Legal protections are currently in place for companies that can show they cannot afford to pay the national minimum wage. Brexit is not the issue here; it is a disregard for those on the minimum wage. The wealthiest workers in the country were, of course, rewarded in this budget with the extension of SARP, helping rich executives pay less tax. This horrible tax scheme permits highly paid executives avoid hundreds of thousands of euro in tax. The contrast in the Government's treatment of millionaire executives and that of minimum wage workers could not be more stark.

Research from Social Justice Ireland shows that more than 100,000 workers are living in poverty in 2019. OECD statistics show Ireland has the third highest rate of low pay in the 36-member organisation, with 23% of the workforce on low pay. The low pay economy is totally unacceptable and is something that should be urgently addressed.

I was glad the Government did not oppose the recent Sinn Féin motion on the living wage a few weeks ago. The support of the Minister for our motion was much appreciated. As passed by the Dáil, it condemned the Government's decision not to increase the national minimum wage and called for the living wage of €12.30 per hour to be introduced. I hope the Minister intends to follow the instructions of the Dáil, although I will not hold my breath because the Government has not done that on many other issues.

The Minister and I will disagree substantially on this point but I will make it regardless. Sinn Féin does not accept that workers should be forced to wait, year in, year out, for the Government to throw them a few crumbs from the table when it is dishing out the cash. This year, the Government did not even manage to do that. This is not the way to treat people, in particular low paid workers. The minimum wage structure has failed in this State and the Minister should at least acknowledge this. How could the minimum wage laws here be considered a success when more than 100,000 workers are living in poverty? Why does the Government think it is normal for workers to live in poverty? Is that the kind of economy and society we want? I certainly do not. Some people will say, "Yes", but the people I represent, and the party I am a member of, totally reject that approach.

We want an economy that works for the people and for our society, and our current system is not delivering that for everybody. Sinn Féin has proposed a plan to introduce a living wage of €12.30 per hour, with appropriate supports in place for those businesses which may not be able to afford this change. Our plan would see an immediate move to the living wage as it is unacceptable to keep kicking this can down the road. Who are we to tell workers on the minimum wage that they must wait longer to get paid a wage that they can get by on? People are either for the living wage or they are not. It is time political parties put their money where there mouth is and committed to delivering for low paid workers.

Our proposal for introducing a living wage includes an exemption for those financially vulnerable businesses that can show the Labour Court they genuinely cannot afford this transition to the living wage. We do not believe this clause will be used widely as most SMEs value their workers and already pay their employees the living wage and much more. A similar provision currently exists for the minimum wage and it has never once been used by any business. However, this exemption is important as it will safeguard businesses and jobs in those SMEs that genuinely find themselves in difficult financial circumstances. In our discussions on this, we wanted to make sure no business was affected where it genuinely could not afford to pay a decent living wage to its employees.

A Eurofound report from 2018 showed that implementing a living wage could play a significant role in offsetting the rise of in-work poverty across the European Union. Proper wages and the eradication of precarious working practices must be the essential foundations of economic growth and productivity. Sinn Féin wants Ireland to become the first country in the world to introduce a living wage on a legislative basis. I encourage the Minister to examine the Government's approach to low pay, recognise how regressive and unfair it is, and commit to introducing a living wage for workers.

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