Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that. Gap has announced its intention to close 81 stores in the UK and Ireland. In this State, there are stores that face closure in Dublin, Cork and Limerick. I read the press statement Gap released overnight. It was full of obnoxious corporate jargon. The company did not have the decency to tell us how many workers would lose their jobs. As of now, we have no official figure in that regard but probably in the region of 100 jobs will be axed from the end of August to the end of September. Has this company availed of the employment wage subsidy scheme, the Covid restrictions support scheme or other Covid supports? If so, we should be told how much. I appreciate the Minister might not be in a position to give us that figure now. Will the Minister tell us now whether he intends, if State support money was given to this company, to try to get it back? It is not good enough that huge multinational corporate outfits take the Irish taxpayer's money and run, which is what this company is doing.

The trade union movement should act on this situation. It should take an initiative aimed at retail workers and have a real debate and conversation about what can be done to resist the retail jobs massacre. Part of what could be done, though not the only thing by a long shot, is to get behind the Debenhams Bill proposed by me and the other Solidarity-People Before Profit Deputies to improve the rights of workers when companies shut down in this fashion and with liquidations, etc.

The situation in hospitality in the past few days has focused attention on the plight of young people in general and young workers in particular. Young people in this country have not been hit the hardest by Covid on the medical side but they have been hit the hardest on the economic front. A package of supports needs to be put in place as a dividend for young people, given their sacrifices and the patient role they have played over the past 16 months. Such a package could, and should, include an increase in the minimum wage to €15 an hour. I ask Deputy Tóibín where he stands on that. He made a number of very poor points in having a go at Solidarity-People Before Profit in this debate. Will he support our campaign and call for a minimum wage of €15 an hour?

Rents should, at the very least, be frozen. In fact, they should be cut. Young people are most affected by rent prices. There are huge fees and low grants for college students. Fees should be abolished and there should be a living grant. There must be an end to discrimination against young people in respect of jobseeker's allowance. There should not be a two-tier system, young people should get the same payment as other unemployed workers and the rate should be raised. There must be no JobBridge 2.0. If there is to be training, it must be decent training, with decent pay and a job at the end of it. There must be a programme of State investment in jobs for young people. There is no doubt in my mind that there is a significant increase in Garda harassment of young people throughout the country, especially in working-class communities. Whatever needs to be done to ensure that is knocked on the head must be done.

All of this costs money and the question is from where that money should come. The answer is that there should, and must, be a Covid wealth tax. Some people and bodies have done well from the pandemic, including the likes of Google, Netflix, the large pharmaceutical companies and others, as well as some very wealthy individuals, including millionaires and billionaires. We need a Covid wealth tax to raise the funds needed to lift the living standards of the people who made sacrifices during the pandemic. Young people must be included as an important part of that.

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