Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister will remember the years between 2011 and 2016 very well and the oft-quoted mantra of the then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny. Was it a bit of virtue signalling and not a mantra, as the current Tánaiste might say? Enda Kenny wanted to make Ireland the best small country in the world in which to do business. I always countered that assertion by saying that we should also make this country the best small country in the world in which to work, but, manifestly, it is not and nowhere is this more evident than in the State's failure to make provision for a legal right to statutory sick pay. Sick pay is not an extravagance or a luxury and neither is it something that workers should have to beg for or to go, cap in hand, to their employer to receive.

We pride ourselves on being a progressive, liberal, open and tolerant country and society, an outward-looking place. We have shed our inward-looking past, our introversion. There is nobody better for wrapping the progressive flag around himself than the Tánaiste and leader of Fine Gael. Progressive countries do not deny hard working people a decent cushion when they fall ill but Ireland has always done so. This needs to change and quickly. We have had reams of emergency legislation pass through these Houses in recent months in response to an unprecedented pandemic and to the economic fallout from this public health crisis. Eye-watering sums of money have been paid out in business supports without any conditions attached whatsoever. Enormous sums of money have been allocated to make sure that people receive reasonable pay packets at a very difficult time and to ensure that they remain linked with their employers. We have seen the parking of the right of a worker who has been temporarily laid off to access redundancy. However, not a single attempt has been made by this Government to address a massive gap in our worker protection system by legislating for the legal right to sick pay.

It is an objective fact that this Government's commitment to review the position would simply not have arisen were it not for the fact that the Labour Party decided to propose this urgent legislation. By virtue of that commitment, in fairness to the Government, it has conceded that this is a gap which needs to be addressed. However, the matter is so urgent that we cannot wait a further six months to hear the outcome of a review and then another few months until legislation is in place to protect the workers that I, Deputy Ó Ríordáin and our Labour Party colleagues want to protect today.

In health and financial terms, the Covid-19 pandemic has hit the poorest in our society hardest. This is true when it comes to the risks that have to be taken by those who decide that they have to go to work even though they may have symptoms of or may have Covid-19. It is also true that those most impacted are those who are among the lowest paid in Ireland, as my colleague outlined. Shop workers, food service workers and others who are paid the lowest permissible rate of pay in this country woke up this morning to a kick in the stomach, frankly. They will have been dismayed to learn that the most many of them can expect to earn next year is an extra ten cent per hour on top of what is already a meagre salary. These workers cannot eat applause. A candle in the window will not warm them and it will not help them to pay their rent. The Minister will tell the House that the LPC is an independent body. She is right - it is independent in its deliberations and in terms of its recommendations and that is appropriate. It was set up to advise the Government and not to make a decision for the Minister and her colleagues. In terms of the minimum wage, the buck stops with the Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Varadkar. If so minded, he and his Cabinet colleagues do not have to accept the recommendation of the commission. This year, the Government has more skin in the game than ever because the State is providing massive subsidies to support wages through the wage subsidy scheme, to the tune of over €2 billion before the scheme ends in March 2021. The Government has a role in terms of directing how that money is spent and in terms of subsidising and supporting the lowest paid workers in this country through an unprecedentedly difficult challenge.

Will the Government put its money where its applause is and provide for a meaningful and reasonable increase to the national minimum wage? The Government must put a lot of thought into the position of the LPC. It is such an important institutional framework and bulwark against the scourge of low pay in this country and it needs to work. The Government needs to reflect on how it can make the LPC work in the context of the difficult situation this country faces. We have heard the case made by ICTU and those representing working people on the LPC for the kinds of increases that should be proposed and considered this year. They are reasonable, rational, fair and objective. How can the Government possibly argue on the one hand that public sector workers, Deputies included, will receive a 2% pay increase in October while, on the other, state that the lowest paid workers in this country are not deserving of a miserable increase of 20 cent per hour, which is what a 2% increase would represent? The Government must reflect on its attitude to those who are on low pay. Applause is all well and good. Tea and sympathy is all well and good but it will not pay the rent or the bills and will not heat a house during a difficult winter.

I look forward to the Minister's response. I apologise that I will not be in the House to hear it as I have a long-standing commitment to speak at a TASC event for the remainder of the morning. I mean no disrespect to her.

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